His grandaughter

The Missing

Sat and watched this western the other night with my parents. The mark of a good film is that my dad will stay awake for its duration. Usually he falls asleep halfway through any film he and my stepmother rent. It has to be really good to keep his attention and stop him from dropping off. Certainly this is the first film I've seen him actually complete since The Fellowship of the Ring.

(Heh, I just realise that this all makes him sound rather old and busted -- can't let a good film stand in the way of nap-time -- when he's still a few years off all that yet. Sorry Dad :)

As far as the film goes, I rather enjoyed it. It's a western in the true sense of the word, rather than a romance or a emotional drama that happens to be set in that time and place. But, it's a good old actioner (plot in a nutshell: woman seeks help from estranged father to rescue her daughter from an evil Apache witch), coupled with just the right amount of human emotion and character development to keep it away from being a brainless 'rescue of the innocents' flick[1]. It starts a little slowly -- feeling very much like it might become one of those emotional dramas -- but once the daughter is kidnapped the story speeds up and doesn't really let up until the end.

Definitely worth a look, whether you're a fan of the westerns or not.

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[1] The development of the innocent in question -- Lily -- is handled quite nicely, and come the end its nice to see that she's not just some simpering little white girl waiting for mummy to come and save her from the bad injuns.