\The Missing"" has what it takes to be a classic western. Unfortunately Tommy Lee Jones' weak performance and other mediocre, male roles drag the film down.
In the New Mexico frontier of 1885 Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett) scratches her living from the desert as a healer and farmer. A lonesome stranger, Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones) rides onto the homestead and Gilkeson, a wood-chopping, rifle-shooting woman, becomes nearly hysterical. The stranger reveals himself to be Gilkeson's father and is soon ejected back to the wilderness.
The next day Gilkeson's male companion, Brake Baldwin (Aaron Eckhart) does not return from a cattle drive. Gilkeson follows his trail and finds her daughter Dot (Jenna Boyd) wondering alone. Baldwin is dead and Gilkeson's other daughter, Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood) has been kidnapped.
Gilkeson and Dot join Jones in pursuit across the New Mexican countryside, trying to track Lilly. While the American army stumbles along under the leadership of Lt. Jim Ducharme (Val Kilmer), Jones and Gilkeson track down the gang of kidnappers and face the ghosts of their past.
Jones' role calls for tremendous internal conflict, and Tommy Lee fails to make it as believable as an actor of his caliber should. He comes off as being too curious and not reflective enough for a wizened man of the desert. Jones suggests depth but never fully reveals it.
The other male characters do little to make up for the lack of Jones' flaws. Kilmer seems comical as an Old West lieutenant and even out of place at times. Eckhart fares no better. Though he seems forceful in his first few minutes, he soon becomes completely forgettable.
The difficulty is not really with the men's performances, but rather with Blanchett's overpowering presence. As she has shown in ""Elizabeth"" and ""Veronica Guerin,"" Blanchett is so headstrong and indomitable that everyone around her is forced to back off a little.
Blanchett indicates the greatest strength of ""The Missing""-appropriate ambiguity of characters. Gilkeson is both a protective mother and scared daughter. She slips between the roles easily. Meanwhile, the central conflict veers far from the tired ""cowboys vs. Indians"" dispute that has long plagued westerns.
Because the movie provides a stark contrast of characters and not sides, it depends on those characters to carry the film. While Blanchett manages Gilkeson's role with her usual grace, Jones does not hold up his end. Because of his stumbling performance, ""The Missing"" goes from potential classic to an acceptable western.
