ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx The Missing Person is a contemporary noir that plays with the classic genre conventions in a comic way, although without invalidating or trivialising the content (scenes where you may expect an escalation of suspense often intentionally end bathetically as convention meets the real world). Private Detective Rosow is a Chicago-based private detective originally from New York who receives a short notice commission to tail a man and a boy cross country. He's an alcoholic and clinically depressed, but he still has some level of ability to achieve his task. "Missing Person" on a surface level refers to the guy Rosow is tailing, but also is about Rosow being missing in an existential way, someone for whom family and community have become concepts only. The bathos allows you to connect in a deeper way with his state, by challenging your familiarity. What's shocking about modern society is how the dissolution of traditional social structures, and omnipresent material convenience has led to so many "missing" people.Fundamentally The Missing Person is an image driven movie, the shot I liked best was a shot at night in the dining cart of the train to California, a cupola of light surrounded by thick darkness, the characters hurtling in cheap comfort through vast emptiness. The image that is iconic (or would be if anyone had watched the movie on release) is of Rosow in the dark with his day-glo glasses. I think from reading about the movie, many reviewers didn't get that it was a movie where much effort had been made on the visuals; you need to stick with it and carry on inspecting it to realise the contrary. At the start, Buschel uses the most purely functional credits anyone could imagine, they look like the yellow writing you get in PowerPoint presentations (supposedly as yellow on blue is the easiest writing to read if you're dyslexic). America is shot just exactly how it is (one of very few movies that have reminded me of my trip to America), and it can be assumed that this means the shooting is amateurish. It's actually more of a statement at the start of the movie, this movie is going to look the opposite of a John Alton shot movie, it's going to be as unmannered as we the filmmakers can make it.

wes-connors Seedy private investigator Michael Shannon (as John Rosow) is hired to find missing husband Frank Wood (as Harold Fullmer). He doesn't hold his liquor as well as the detectives he emulates, but Mr. Shannon manages to find a way in the dark. As you might expect, he has second thoughts about his assignment, and finds himself as well. This is a nicely done "film festival" type - involving but not necessarily entertaining - which does not reflect the films it recalls (Humphrey Bogart is mentioned in the script). Writer/director Noah Buschel and Shannon are fine, but you can always see them working.****** The Missing Person (1/16/09) Noah Buschel ~ Michael Shannon, Frank Wood, Amy Ryan, John Ventimiglia

picknpen There is only one spoiler for this movie, and it lies in the fundamental reason for its existence. This is not a noir. I can see how the mistake can be made, due to its laconic style, but there are fairly rigid genre rules which The Missing Person simply does not meet. I kept waiting for the noir to develop, and became impatient until I realized it never would. Shannon's performance, along with the feel and the tone of the film kept me involved during the rough spots (and there are a few). This movie is about one thing: theme. To me, the meandering in the early narrative mirrors the disconnected nature of the protagonist: lost and adrift, sleepwalking through the job, mired in his own drunken alienation.The plot is often clumsy, and the story might have been told better at times, but when you spin through it all, including the almost unbearable chunk of exposition in the NY apartment where Gus and Rosow flesh out the plot machinations, you reach the undeniably powerful realization that this movie is about dealing with life-crushing loss.The question I entertained through it all was: who is the missing person? Initially, it was Fullmer, then Rosow's wife, but ultimately, it was Rosow himself.Not a perfect film by any means, but the final impact redeems it from all the tangential trivialities one has to sort through on the way.Reminded me (in that way) of The Big Kahuna: frustrating at times, but the ultimate payoff makes everything worthwhile.

Sundance Girl This movie reminded me a bit of James Gray's movies. Simply shot, actor driven, quiet, sincere, and romantic. While "The Missing Person" is much more of an art film than "Two Lovers," I left with the same feeling of having just watched something very personal and very moving. I don't want to give away too much about this movie, but ultimately it is a film about loneliness and being alone. Sound like a downer? It's not. Michael Shannon delivers his best performance yet as a drunk detective who likes to crack himself up with bad jokes(he cracked up the Sundance audience too.) Amy Ryan, Margaret Colin, and a bunch of other familiar faces provide moments of humor and sadness. Mostly what impressed me about "The Missing Person" was that it wasn't hip or clever. And not fancy either. In fact it was almost the opposite of every movie I saw at Sundance. It was mostly just good, honest film-making . Rare qualities indeed in independent film these days.