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.
The Missing Person (2009) ****
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