MISSING IN AMERICA (2005)

Directed by Gabrielle Savage. Starring Danny Glover, Linda Hamilton, Ron Perlman, Zoe Weizenbaum, David Strathairn. Drama. Synopsis: A man who has spent years living in a small remote community of Vietnam veterans in the Pacific Northwest has his life changed dramatically and is forced to confront some of his own personal demons when a friend of his from Vietnam finds him and leaves his daughter with him to raise under false pretenses.

I've always loved movies (got that from my mom) and the older I get the more I realize that one of the things I love most about being a movie buff is finding a flick that didn't have a lot of hype or a huge budget-not that I have anything against studios making money, I am an entrepreneur at heart (got that from my dad)-but put together a good cast with a high quality script and good directing and, voila, we have a great story and, by definition, a great movie.

Actually, saying this is a good caste is a little bit of an insult. All the main characters here are either great actors or act great, however you want to look at it, even if there are no "box office" stars (with the possible exception of Danny Glover).

Jake (Danny Glover) is a hard bitten veteran almost living off the land and in solitude when he gets a surprise visit from an old Vietnam buddy, Henry (David Strathairn  We Are Marshall) who has surprise with him, his daughter Lenny (Zoe Weizenbaum). Lenny is lovable, talkative, and most surprising of all, half Vietnamese. Henry just wants Jake to watch Lenny for a little while, he has to go on a trip to a clinic as he is suffering from cancer induced by Agent Orange.

Well, we find out soon that this arrangement was meant to be permanent, though Jake does not realize it, and the fact that Henry is definitely going to die, until it is too late and Lenny is effectively his child now.

The interaction and the scenes between them are priceless. Anyone who has ever been a parent or a child will relate to something here. Lenny begins to chip away at Jake's tough, gruff exterior, which isn't just directed towards her, but everybody, most of all the store owner in town, Kate (Linda Hamilton) who has been trading barbs with Jake for years.

Jake is forced to confront his personal demons from Vietnam and its aftermath, but he is not the only such vet in town. The most compelling and intriguing of them in the film is Red (Ron Perlman) a disfigured vet who does not speak, boobie traps his property, and is initially very hostile to Lenny.

This is a wonderful movie, folks. Its funny, tragic, touching, and a wonderful ode to our Vietnam veterans. I will tell that the tragedy comes in the death of one of the main characters, but you know me well enough to know I will not tell you who and spoil it for those who have not seen this film. And, my little review does not even begin to do this movie justice, its a great first movie for the first time director, and she is going to be hard pressed to top this one when she directs her next film.

The Vietnam/post Vietnam movie genre has spawned so many good movies, and a few great ones, from Apocalypse Now to The Deer Hunter to Platoon   and so many others. This film deserves mention with all of those, its that good.  And might even be a little better. You don't have to take my word for it.

But, I hope you do.