No. 89 The Missing Person (2009) 32/100

 

As I near the end of this worthy endeavour the films get harder to find. This one required a £3.49 rental on Amazon! Oh, the humanity! It was a good watch though and I’m just glad the majority of Shannon’s work is easily available. There are a few that still escape me on all platforms, so we’ll just have to keep our eyes open.

 

This is a strange kind of movie with dark and comedy elements sitting side by side. In some senses it’s a film noir but in others it is a straightforward mystery drama.

 

Shannon plays a stereotypical private eye, almost in the Bogart style, but in 2009. He lives in a rundown apartment next to the train track and he likes booze, smoking and voiceover narration. We meet him in bed, rudely awakened by a 5am phone call. The news is good however, as it’s a job, and clearly one that he needs. He is tasked with taking a train so that he can follow a man and a child. Amy Ryan from the new employers is soon at his door with tickets and a pile of cash.

 

Shannon catches the train and follows the suspect from Chicago to California and then on to Mexico. What seems at first a straightforward trailing mission gets more complex as the motivation for it slowly becomes apparent.

 

Things are not all that they seem, with Shannon’s pick up in the hotel bar having her own motivations and the target not being what he was initially led to believe.

 

After an hour or so Shannon is rumbled but the quarry agrees to come back to New York with him. Back in the city Shannon enlists his former colleague, and oft seen co-star in Paul Sparks, to look after his man while he does some more digging. It transpires that the target was presumed missing following the 9/11 attacks and had been spotted in Mexico where he claims to be helping out an orphanage. The person pulling the strings is the target’s wife who having now received her compensation and life insurance payouts needs to see her husband again – but for what purpose and who are all the shadowy people with an interest in proceedings?

 

I quite liked this film with Shannon doing a good turn as a modern-day Sam Spade. His character was deliberately cliched and it was no surprise how he acted once he had the briefcase of cash. The story was a bit confusing in places with it not clear who was doing what to whom. There was a helpful flashback showing Shannon as a NYPD first responder who had lost his own wife. I appreciate the titled could be applied to Shannon as well as his target and you could say that some of the metaphor was a bit on the nose.

 

I did however like the hapless dick with a heart, and he was ably assisted by Holly Flax herself, Amy Ryan.

 

The closing shots and narration offered a bit of closure and redemption, but you do get the sense that had Shannon not gotten involved things would have panned out pretty much the same anyway. Still, this way sees Jeff Bezos trouser another $4.58 from me!

 

When is Shannon-On? – 00.25

Outcome?  Happy with Amy Ryan

Film 3/5

Shannon Stars 3.5/5