The tale of a British mother and a Malian father searching for their children after the 7/7 bombings is subtle but affecting
A recurrent theme in movies is that of strangers being suddenly brought together in the wake of a tragic event to examine, share and compare their lives. In Billy Wilder's bittersweet comedy Avanti!, starchy American businessman Jack Lemmon and plump English spinster Juliet Mills go to Ischia to pick up the bodies of parents killed in an accident only to discover that his father and her mother were secret lovers.
In Costa-Gavras's superb real-life thriller, Missing, Lemmon has a similar role as an uptight, middle-class American having the scales fall from his eyes over Us foreign policy and the CIA when he goes to Chile after Pinochet's 1973 coup. There, he meets his hippie daughter-in-law (Sissy Spacek) and they're drawn together as they investigate the disappearance of his political activist son.
A recurrent theme in movies is that of strangers being suddenly brought together in the wake of a tragic event to examine, share and compare their lives. In Billy Wilder's bittersweet comedy Avanti!, starchy American businessman Jack Lemmon and plump English spinster Juliet Mills go to Ischia to pick up the bodies of parents killed in an accident only to discover that his father and her mother were secret lovers.
In Costa-Gavras's superb real-life thriller, Missing, Lemmon has a similar role as an uptight, middle-class American having the scales fall from his eyes over Us foreign policy and the CIA when he goes to Chile after Pinochet's 1973 coup. There, he meets his hippie daughter-in-law (Sissy Spacek) and they're drawn together as they investigate the disappearance of his political activist son.
- 7/10/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.