An alcoholic P.I. Rosow (Michael Shannon) gets a phone call at 5 in the morning. He's supposed to get on the train from Chicago to LA. It's a tailing job and there is a money in it. So starts one of the most unusual noir I've seen in recent years involving Bogey era style private eye in the post 9/11 world.
After losing his wife in NY, ex-NYPD Rosow is a damaged fruit. But it's the circumstances that have changed, not his character. Writer/director Noah Buschel relies largely on Shannon's droll, Gould in Long Goodbye-esque performance to amplify that we are indeed living in a different era, albeit it's only been 9 years since.
The Missing Person says a lot about mutual understanding, fraternity in tragedy. It also says about that there will always be opportunities to make profits off of it. With well composed framing, funny self-aware one-liners, Shannon's gin-soaked pitch perfect performance and great supporting cast- Amy Ryan and John Ventimiglia in particular, this peculiar film is another great little film gem that never properly got distributed and went straight to dvd. A real shame.
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