This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Michael Shannon is one of the finest new character actors working in films today; his performance here as a private investigator from New York, hired to trail a middle-aged man from Chicago to Los Angeles by train, is the centerpiece of "The Missing Person"...and is very nearly the entire show. Writer-director Noah Buschel was probably hoping to modernize the old private eye clichés (including booze, broads, and blaring saxophones on the soundtrack), but his movie doesn't really start cooking for at least a quarter of an hour into the proceedings. Buschel's pacing is deliberately slow, and Shannon's John Rosow is intentionally beleaguered and burnt-out, yet there's no reason to be so poky with this narrative (even Bogie livened up earlier on one of his cases). The film is well-produced and shot, though it runs the risk of losing viewers before it starts to take shape. Once it does, it becomes a rather fascinating throwback, its scenario seesawing between the old and new--like Philip Marlowe in the cell-phone era. **1/2 from ****

The cinematography in this film is phenomenal and the direction is superb and skillful. The Missing Person is ultimately tugs at the heartstrings. The lead character played by Michael Shannon is adequate. I don't think he completely had what the role required - something to draw you in. He plays the role too flat. Unfortunately its what brings down my rating on this film to a large degree. I also felt that the script was way too limited in some dialogue or narration. There's one point where you're watching cars following each other for what seems like hours. I was completely engrossed in the beautiful camera and location work in this film and ultimately - I got it.

What director Noah Buschel has concocted with "The Missing Person" is to take a genre and fine tune it with touches that, while original, ultimately pay homage to, and even nourish, noir.What he has done,too, is set up any number of movies he might want to make with the masterly Michael Shannon as private eye John Rosow; and re-recruit, too, the saucily effective Amy Ryan.This moody artwork about finding a mysteriously but voluntary missing person has all sorts of twists and turns, none predictable, as it weaves its way through the dark.That Shannon plays roles Bogart feasted on is all too true. but it is the rugged countenance of Mitchum that he more facilely brings to mind. Shannon,so powerful in the film "Revolutionary Road" and then HBO's raunchy and real "Boardwalk Empire" series, and yet again in the rock film "The Runaways," is special, indeed. His screen effect is compelling,mesmerizing.All we need now is a script and the word "Action!"

Writer/Director Noah Buschel is a name we will likely recognize more as audiences who missed the theater release of this very quiet moody piece discover it on DVD. In many way this story and cinematic recreation of the story reminds us of the old dark Bogart mysteries - in tone of telling, in filming gestures, and in the casting. It is a true 'film noir' revealed slowly and insidiously in tones of umber, gray, and washed out colors so prevalent in the early color films and so additive to this production. For this viewer it works on every level. Private Detective John Rosow (Michael Shannon in a brilliantly understated performance) is a down and out, alcoholic, internalized and bruised man who is hired to shadow a man from Chicago to Los Angeles. Rosow seems to be easily manipulated by his 'boss' Gus (Papitos) and sidekick Charley (Amy Ryan), but when Rosow reaches Los Angeles he discovers that the man he is trailing - Harold Fulmer (Frank Wood) - is delivering a young Mexican boy to one Don Edgar (Yul Vasquez) who seems to be running an orphanage for lost kids to either sell to adopting parents or manipulate otherwise. He is sidetracked by an agent Lana Cobb (Margaret Colin) but with the help of a taxi driver Hero (John Ventimiglia) he finally finds his targeted Harold who insists that he is a lost man, a man who only wants to remain missing to help people like the young Mexican who was an unwanted boy to find some degree of happiness. Rosow reports his findings, and surprisingly is told that Harold wife Megan (Linda Emond) will pay a huge sum of money just to retrieve her missing husband. It seems Harold has been missing since 9/11, but instead of dying in that explosion Harold escaped and decided the world needed help- the only way he felt he could deliver it was to leave behind his wealthy wife and lifestyle and simply do good, anonymous deeds. Rosow meets with Megan, gets the money, but in doing so Rosow must relive the fact that he has lost his wife and world as a result of 9/11, changing his priorities of how to end his assignment: does he turn over Harold and take the small fortune or does he follow his heart? He does the right thing. Though the story is a strongly told mystery thriller it is first and foremost a story about the loss and disorientation that have paralyzed so many people following 9/11. The beauty of THE MISSING PERSON is the message that in many ways we are all 'missing persons' now. How we elect to deal with that is the part of the story we individually must complete. Michael Shannon enters the ranks of significant film actors with this deeply touching role. This is a little film that deserves a very wide audience. Grady Harp