Jones, Blanchett elevate folk yarn

Ron Howard has an immensely eclectic cinematic rap sheet. His directorial decisions have brought him into contact with mermaids, midgets, millionaires and mathematicians, as well as parents, pyros, pugilists and publishers. Now with his latest film, The Missing, he's attempting to rescue the oft-ignored Western genre. The resulting work, while not bad, is certainly less than awe-inspiring. \nCate Blanchett stars as Maggie, a frontierswoman raising two daughters and maintaining a ranch. One day, her estranged father Jones (Tommy Lee Jones) returns after having deserted the family in favor of living amongst the Indians.\nShortly after he and Maggie part acrimoniously, Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood), her eldest daughter, is abducted by an evil Indian shaman by the name of Chidin (an effectively creepy Eric Schweig).\nSadly, the outcome is never in doubt. Howard uses the John Wayne classic, The Searchers, as an obvious structural template. Though, The Missing sorely lacks that film's moral ambiguity.\nThe Missing is an entertaining and intermittently engaging thriller, but it pales in comparison to Howard's glory days, i.e. Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind. It's not a bad film per se, something's just "missing"