Now more than a century removed from it, two opposite images of the American Old West remain in our culture. One is of a
harsh, unforgiving era of lawlessness and desperation, of sickness, disease and random Indian attacks. The other is the "Little House on the Prairie" version, where family is all-important and life is simple, full of work, but rewarding. "The Missing," Ron Howard's proficient new film based on the Thomas Eidson novel "The Last Ride," combines both views into something I think must be close to how life actually was: desolate and difficult, but made more bearable through a devotion to one's kin. Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett) embodies the harsher elements of it, haggard and time-worn (an especial feat given that it's the radiant Cate Blanchett we're talking about) as the single mother of two girls, owner of a ranch, and the only doctor in this part of New Mexico. Traditional family values have escaped her: We have only speculation as to the father of her oldest daughter, Lily (Evan Rachel Wood), and Maggie now sleeps with Brake (Aaron Eckhart), a ranch hand who cannot convince her to marry him. Her husband, father of younger Dot (Jenna Boyd), has passed away. Her own father, she pretends is dead.
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