The Missing
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: November 19, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
22
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
This murky, thriller-tinged Western has the terrain down cold -- from the wide-open spaces to the rocky vistas -- but beneath all the requisite genre trappings there's a vast, empty gulch where the affecting dramatic element should have been found. Read full review
60
Film ThreatClint Morris
The performances are great, the chemistry between the two leads is very good, and Ron Howard again proves himself a slick hand behind the camera. But like a lot of these power-packed pictures, there’s just something missing. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
You can believe this man (Jones) left his family because he felt born into the wrong tribe. Now if only he had picked the right movie . . . Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Born to play a Western hero, Jones sells the film's syrupy message with a soulful, wounded performance, relieved at times by his agreeably cantankerous sense of humor. Read full review
60
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Ron Howard somehow makes a great movie and an awful movie, all at the same time. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
What's missing in The Missing -- despite throwing in The Everything, from magic trinkets to group hugs -- is soul. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianKim Morgan
Judging by the beautiful photography of Salvatore Totino, Howard knows what a Western should look like. But the thrills suggested by the trailers, in which the picture is presented almost like a frightening supernatural horror story, are nowhere to be seen. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It's crisp, efficient, well-made and strangely, vaguely dull. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Nearly 50 years after John Ford's "Searchers" we have arrived at a point in film history when the movie industry can offer a less sophisticated version of the same material. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
However bogged down by predictable story rhythms, banally assembled shoot-outs, and climactic mano a mano, The Missing has an acidic period tone, a respect for the reality of violence, and a refreshing dearth of superhuman heroics and easy triumph. For that much, we should be grateful. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
It's a big snooze because we can't take the main characters seriously. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
What neither Howard nor his screenwriter, Ken Kaufman, seem to realize is that The Missing is that much bleaker and more unsettling when its horrors spring forth from the land itself and from the souls of wayward men. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Can't be dismissed. Yet something keeps this movie from being completely satisfying: a disconnect between the plot and the point. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The bones of a great Western remain barely visible under the layer of mush he and screenwriter Ken Kaufman smooth over them, reminders of the viciously memorable film that might have been. Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The Missing is so dour it makes you wonder why they didn't all just pack up and go back East. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
A clunky Western that tries so hard to be Politically Correct that although young women are kidnapped by Indians to be sold into prostitution in Mexico, they are never molested by their captors. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
While it roots the heroine's compassion in her Christian beliefs, it suggests Indian occultism is equally powerful. And the last third is a lackluster barrage of stalking, shooting, and fighting. Too bad the movie doesn't ride into its own sunset about an hour earlier. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
It might better be titled The Awkward. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Watching her (Blanchett) and Jones work together is the chief pleasure of this polished but self-conscious drama--Howard delivers some terse and coherent suspense sequences, but Ford looms over the story like a rifleman hidden in the red rock. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The movie also has a supernatural element: the leader of the renegades (Eric Schweig) turns out to be a sorcerer with occult powers. It's very clumsy, and speaks to the pandering streak in Howard that has always prevented him from being a truly first-rate film artist. Read full review
40
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
The only thing The Missing isn't missing is a handful of climaxes, all of them of the anti- variety that leave you believing, then praying the movie's over a good 30 minutes before its actual and inevitable finale. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
If you're able to take The Missing seriously, as I was not, you'll be impressed by its sweep and ambition. The most lasting impression it made on me was one of absurd overreaching.
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