October 6, 2012

Day 80/84 - The Missing Person (2009)


Add two parts the thirties Humphrey Bogart, one part film noir, and one part September 11. Top off with two mysterious women. Mix slowly to some atmospheric jazz and several plot twists and you will have the surprisingly effective The Missing Person, written by director Noah Buschel. Buschel wrote the script and directed Neal Cassady, which I wasn’t very fond of, but here he hooked me in by playing with the rules of the detective film noir genre.

Michael Shannon (who I was knocked out by in 2011’s Take Shelter) plays hardboiled hard-drinking detective John Rosow who gets hired over the phone to follow Harold Fullmer (Frank Wood), who is taking a train from Chicago to California. Miss Charley (effectively played by Amy Ryan) acts as his go-between with his employer. His job starts at merely following Fullmer, but half-way through the film changes to bringing him home to New York City.

The greatest thing about the storyline are the swirves and curves Buschel gives us. As with any film noir, we and the hero often have to discover the subtext and real story going on. Is Fullmer, who is traveling with a young Mexican boy, a pediphile, or are we reading the situation wrong? Why are the FBI following him? I knew when Rosow jumps in the trunk of a cab to follow Fullmer without him seeing him that we were in for some twists and updating of the genre. The cabbie, named appropriately Hero Furillo (John Ventimiglia) keeps telling Rosow, just do the right thing—and we see that Rosow is a moral man who can perceive right moves from wrong.

The first part of the film feels like we are evoking the 1940s, especially with the train travel. Someone once mused that all great mysteries involve train travel. Certainly this sequence brings a smile as Rosow sits in the dining car watching Fullmer. But as the film progresses the color loses some of its sepia layering, we begin to learn Rosow’s ties to New York City and why he moved to Chicago and became a drunk.

I definitely enjoyed the film.

The Missing Person (2009) ****



No comments:

Post a Comment