People get lost for many reasons and in many ways. Some get lost in drugs and alcohol to escape their pain and others quite literally get lost by hiding out from the world as hermits. Whatever the reason, it takes a lot for them to want to return to the world that hurt them, for them to come in from the wilderness, figuratively and sometimes for real.
Missing In America, just out on DVD, is a movie that deals with veterans of the Vietnam war who came back home to America and discovered they could no longer be in the world. Scarred internally and externally, they've retreated into the deep woods in the Pacific North West and carve out a life with as little contact as possible with "civilization".
Jake Neeley (Danny Glover) is one such veteran. He's never forgiven himself for the deaths of the men in his squad when he was on his tour of duty. He's lived out in the woods on his own with his dog, cat, and chickens eking out a survival existence, emotionally and physically.
All that changes when an old army buddy (David Strathairn) unceremoniously dumps his American-Asian daughter on him because he's dying of lung cancer caused by Agent Orange. Forced to come out of his shell by the demands placed on him by young Lenny (Zoe Weizenbaum), Jake rediscovers his capacity for caring again.
In the woods surrounding Jake live an unknown number of other veterans who have reached the same conclusion — live alone and nothing can hurt you again. The horror that was Vietnam involved the use of kids to fight against the American soldiers. One of the neighbouring vets was horribly scarred by a grenade thrown by a Vietnamese girl Lenny's age and his mind is as badly burnt by the incident as his face was.
Ron Perlman (proving he doesn't need latex and prosthetics to be scary or to act) plays "Red", a brooding presence in the woods that looms as a constant threat to Lenny's safety. Of all the veterans "Red" has the least chance of making his way home again, and is the least susceptible to Lenny's brightness of spirit.
Article comments
1 - Ralph
Missing in America missed some logical facts. The movie made reference to the fact that our war buddies were serving around 1970. Shouldn't that make the girl in her mid to late 30's? Other than that, it was a good movie.
2 - Gary
Did you even watch the movie? Henry went back to Vietnam and that is when he meet his wife and they had Lenny.