The Missing Review

A derivative fish-out-of-water tale about an Italian priest lost in the outback.

Vatican priest Monsignor Tommaso (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), is haunted by strange dreams involving an aboriginal man. It seems that some years ago, while working in Australia, Tommaso had fathered a daughter, Angela, by Susan (Rebecca Frith), and that Angela is now missing, possibly a victim of a serial killer who buries his victims in a forest. Reluctantly Tommaso leaves wintry Rome for sunny Melbourne where he soon finds himself face to face with the aboriginal of his dreams, Willie (David Ngoombujarra). Willie offers to help him find his daughter... A couple of weeks ago I was moaning about the lack of originality in the screenplays of Australian films, and here we go again. The setup here is incredibly similar to Peter Weir`s The Last Wave, and we also have a sinister truck traversing the outback driven by an unseen driver - Duel, of course. And, in the end, this is another fish out of water film - a European in the outback story. As the priest, a lost man both literally and symbolically, popular Italian actor Bentivoglio is rather uninspiring - but David Ngoombujarra more than makes up for his co-star`s deficiencies with a commanding performance. Still, writer-director Manuela Alberti has come up with a scrappy piece of work which looks as if some significant bits and pieces wound up on the cutting room floor.Margaret`s Comments: The attempt to blend the spiritualism of the Christian tradition with the spiritualism of aboriginal culture is a challenging and interesting concept which unfortunately is not completely satisfactorily realised in The Missing. The character of the policeman Sutherland (John Moore) is underdeveloped and the clash of cultures gets lost somewhere out there in the desert.. It`s not badly directed, it`s not badly acted. David Ngoomgujarra is a find, he`s very charismatic. Unfortunately the film fails to realise the assets it actually has and recklessly discards any likeable character just as they`re starting to connect with an audience. This is an Australian film where all sorts of terrific ingredients have not ultimately come together to make any sort of real impact. However the landscape is terrific, it`s good seeing the dead heart on screen again.