I really hope lots of people get to see "Missing in America." It's a well-told story that uncovers some of the aftereffects of that mistaken military tragedy. War-is-Tragedy has been said before, but obviously, not often enough and this film says it in a new way. Through Jake (Danny Glover), a hermit vet whose pain from the war is under layers and layers of scar tissue, we understand how painful war is and how wrong battles can go. From seeing his near-total withdrawal and through flashbacks we learn that good men and innocent women and children were killed for what amounted to nothing. The North won.

Jake takes in (reluctantly) a wonderful half-Vietnamese girl(played by Zoe Weizenbaum). He snaps at her but mostly she holds her own and eventually melts his heart along with the hearts of some other GI hermits. The fights and the heart connections between Jake and the girl are so smooth and jaw-dropping real that you don't even know you're in a theater.

I think the ending of this movie is partly what makes it a great film but it is an unexpected turn of events and you should probably stop here and just go see the film if you want to be surprised. After viewing come back to read that: The sad ending is part of how the film screams for more healing to be done. More crying. So many people were scarred. The ending gives you the result of what happens when you ignore the pain and damage that this war has done. And aren't we in another war that is also like a civil war and is also being waged by leadership that has made no effort to understand the culture and ideology of the "combatants?" Perhaps not grieving Viet Nam has just come back to take another serious bite out of our hearts and souls. "Condemned to repeat it," . . . and all that.

I had the privilege of seeing this film at the Seattle International Film Festival on Memorial Day and I couldn't have selected more suitable film for the occasion.

In Missing in America, Jake (Danny Glover) is surprised by a fellow ex-Vietnam war vet (David Strathairn) who unexpectedly leaves his half-Vietnamese little girl with Jake to care for. The film follows the emotionally wounded vet as he grows attached to the little girl, played superbly by Zoe Weizenbaun, who will be in the upcoming Memoirs of a Geisha.

Danny Glover's Jake is familiar territory for the actor as Jake is an independent survivor who lives alone in a shack in the woods and is more than a little disagreeable. He drives into to town periodically to buy supplies from Kate (Linda Hamilton) with money made from selling chopped wood. Jake doesn't immediately take to the little girl, Lenny, that is left in his care, but as Jake's character warms up to his new housemate, this film could have become a sweet film about a wounded man who is changed forever by the child in his life, but Missing in America doesn't travel down that path. Instead, it used the arrival of a half-Vietnamese child as a catalyst that allows for the exploration into the lives of the mysterious war veterans that live solitary lives in the woods, not able to forget the horrors they experienced in Vietnam. In Lenny's explorations into the woods, she meets their neighbors, some, like Red (Ron Perlman), are still living as if they are in a war zone and see Lenny as a painful reminder of a war that while being 40 years in the past, still impacts their lives on a daily basis.

Missing in America is a very amazing first feature for director Gabrielle Savage Dockterman. This was a very courageous and sometimes gut wrenching film that feels like a very authentic snapshot of life 40 years after the Vietnam war for some veterans.

My wife and I just saw this movie at The Seattle Film Festival. It is outstanding. There are some minor flaws but this movie needs to get into nationwide distribution. The only way that will happen is if people that read IMDb ask for it. Danny Glover should be nominated for an Oscar and the little girl is a real possibility for a supporting actress nomination. This movie tells an important story about how this country has ignored the plight of mentally disturbed Vietnam veterans (get ready in twenty years for the same thing with Iraq veterans). It is too bad that intelligently made movies have trouble getting distributed while some much crapola does. Please contact your local film distributor and ask that they show this film.