‘Missing’ misses, ‘Mansion’ has no spirit

JOHN DEPKO

There is a lot to admire and a lot to dislike in Ron Howard’s darkest

film to date. In “The Missing,” he offers a classic Western tale of

revenge against evildoers with many Clint Eastwood overtones.

Top-quality acting, cinematography, editing and spooky music set the

tone for a scary cowboy thrill ride.

But this story is so dreary and depressing, it is painful to watch

it unfold to its inevitable conclusion. Innocent young women and

children are kidnapped from homesteads on the Arizona frontier by

renegade Indians. The girls are taken to be sold as prostitutes in

Mexico.

Cate Blanchett is excellent as the tormented mother of one of the

abducted girls. She is forced to turn to her long lost father, played

by the craggy faced Tommy Lee Jones. He has lived many years with

Indians and has first-rate tracking skills. She counts on him to help

her track down the renegades holding her daughter.

While Jones does his job well, at two hours and 15 minutes, this drawn-out, simple Western is way, way too long. Full of gruesome

cruelty and violence, it wants to be a modern day “Shane” but ends up

being a 19th-century horse-drawn version of “Taxi Driver.” A flawed

hero risks his life to save a captive girl. Excellent moviemaking

skills are placed in the service of a brutal and vile set of

circumstances. It’s all very well done for what it is, but it’s a

relentless downer in every respect. See it if you crave a humorless

experience at the movies.

* JOHN DEPKO is a Costa Mesa resident and a senior investigator

for the Orange County public defender’s office.

‘Haunted Mansion’ exorcised of plot, acting

The antagonist behind the murderous scandals thriving in an

ancient, abandoned mansion is revealed as the Evers family unravels

the truth about the death of a woman named Elizabeth.

Jim (Eddie Murphy) and Sara Evers (Marsha Thomason) are two

successful real estate agents from New Orleans who are invited to the

challenge of selling the “Haunted Mansion,” which is owned by a man

named Master Gracey.

Ramsley, his orderly butler and trustworthy advisor, makes the

call to their household with the intention of recruiting only Sara

for this job; she is identical to Elizabeth. Her husband is the one

who urges her to accept this man’s offer.

As it happens, when Elizabeth and Master Gracey were young, they

were in love. Then mysteriously, Elizabeth took her own life, and

Master Gracey never got over his tragic loss. The Evers family,

including the children, is caught in the turmoil surrounding the past

of the mansion, and they do their best to solve the mystery behind

Elizabeth’s death. There is one catch incorporated into the mix of

mystery: the mansion’s inhabitants are all ghosts.

Jim and his kids wander the mansion and unintentionally come

across clues to Elizabeth’s death. It becomes apparent, with the help

of an imprisoned spirit, that Elizabeth did not commit suicide.

Discovering the true murderer will ultimately be an endeavor of high

intensity. Jim encounters Madame Leota, a woman’s head trapped within

a crystal ball; she becomes an important asset in the uncovering of

the mansion’s murderer.

As in the summer Disney release “Pirates of the Caribbean,” the

special effects in this film convey the exact message that each

specific plot exemplifies. But when it comes to dialogue, plot

complexity and humor, “Haunted Mansion” does not measure up to

audience expectations after one has seen prior Disney work.

In any particular film, I personally love listening to the actors

speak. This time, I dreaded it. They weren’t as passionate about

their words as I would have expected, and even the words spoken

didn’t fit the tone expressed by the setting and special effects.

Also, the plot wasn’t as intriguing as one may have thought; it

consisted only of, who killed Elizabeth and why? There were no other

issues to make the story seem more interesting.

Truth be told, this film is more directed toward a young audience,

but even with this in mind, it would have been the slightest bit more

interesting to complicate things a bit.

* SARA SALAM is a student at Corona del Mar High School.