Desaparecido no Ar

So he's driving from Ottawa to some place in Nebraska. Why would he go through Vancouver (Lion's Gate Bridge)?

This is one of Ellen Burstyn's best performances. She is the mother of a young Canadian man who disappears while driving across the US. She hires a private detective to find out what happened because of the inaction of Canadian and American authorities. I won't say anything about the story, because it is a mystery. It is based on a true story. The final five minutes cap the story perfectly. Worth watching. I've seen it twice.

Recently I sat down to make a list of all the DVD's I want to buy that I know are first rate movies. Years ago, in the 1980's, I saw a film documentary of the real life people this movie was about. A low-life, recently out of jail because the state he committed a crime in didn't want to spend the $200.00 it would have taken the state to keep him in jail for a weekend in a county lockup, gets set free. This low-life roams the country and what happens to this unsuspecting boy is an atrocity that questions the entire human race and what it really is doing here on this planet called Earth!

This great film is based on a true story. You will "believe" this because of the super acting of Robert Prosky. As an observer, I have nothing but good things to say about this film. I want to know why didn't this film get the attention it certainly deserves! I'm a movie junkie, so believe me when I tell you that I know what I'm talking about. I "only" watch good to great movies and this film from the 1980's is one of the best.

Maybe I like it so much because as I view the internal workings of the story, I look at myself in my past and I can connect with the victim of this movie when I was in serious need and ask this world, "Why the hell didn't someone help ME when I desperately needed help? When I was facing the lowest of low-life's and nobody gave a damn about me, where the hell are "MY" rights?"

"Watch" this movie. I will not tell you the story or the plot because I will not ruin it for you, but it's something you will not forget.

True story about a missing young man is less a criminal drama or crime-mystery than it is an indictment of the justice system, the entanglements of legal procedures, jurisdictional red tape and the incompetence of government officials. Ellen Burstyn shows true grit as the mother of the college student who vanished, last heard from in Nebraska after his van broke down while driving from Ottawa, Canada to Boulder, Colorado to attend classes. TV-movie has the kid's determined mother, his older brother, his father from Los Angeles and an elderly private investigator running into one roadblock after another while tracking the path of the boy's stolen van, receipts from his credit card and his cashed traveler's checks. Although the film was nominated for an Eddie for Eric A. Sears' editing, its muddled midsection really could have used some paring down (instead of getting answers, such as how one nasty felon with a list of priors managed to pass a lie detector test, we are treated to incidentals at Burstyn's job and the detective's marriage). Also, the opening, showing the high energy relationship between the kid in question and his family, rings false (it's too blatantly perky--I'm guessing to provide a contrast to the bleak circumstances that follow). Frustrated Burstyn gets a chance to blow off some steam, and she's terrific when she takes on indifferent authority figures, however the reenactment at the finale of the boy's fate is extremely hard to watch. A purposefully depressing experience overall, but nevertheless an engrossing story.

Well acted, good script. A crime story well worth watching. The true story it depicts is as gripping as most works of fiction. 7.5 stars.