---
title: "Missing: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/missing-1982/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/missing-1982"
critics_score: 74
critics_reviews: 7
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Missing (1982): what the critics said

Critics' score 74 from 7 reviews: 6 positive, 0 mixed, 1 negative.

## The AV Club — Scott Tobias

Rating A-. 22 October 2008. 

The critic highlights Jack Lemmon's heartbreaking performance as a conservative American businessman searching for his missing son amid the Chilean coup. The film powerfully reveals the conscience of a nation confronting its government's complicity in the horrors.

[Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/missing-1798205078)

## The New York Times — Vincent Canby

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 12 February 1982. 

Canby hails it as Costa-Gavras's most beautifully achieved political melodrama to date, a suspense-thriller of real cinematic style with immense authority from Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek that delivers terrific emotional impact.

[Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/12/movies/missing-by-costa-gavras.html)

## Empire — William Thomas

Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 

The critic praises this emotional political thriller inspired by real events in Chile, highlighting its mix of outrage and personal drama. Jack Lemmon's performance as a father turning to rage is singled out as superb, with Costa-Gavras maintaining strong pace and balance.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/missing-2-review/)

## Radio Times

Rating 4/5. 

The US State Department denounced this uncompromising human drama on its first release, but it proved to be Costa-Gavras's most accessible Kafka-esque nightmare. It is a compelling moral tale of a disappearance during the 1973 Chilean coup, brought to life with incredible immediacy and impact.

[Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-qh3bjx/missing/)

## Time Out — DP

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. 

The critic calls it Costa-Gavras's extraordinary first American movie based on true events during the 1973 Chilean coup. Spacek and Lemmon are fine, but the unending night-time imagery of a society coming apart makes it overwhelming, underpinned by the atmosphere of a paranoid conspiracy thriller.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/missing)

## Variety — Variety Staff

Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1981. 

The review notes the film's focus on US involvement in the 1973 Chile coup and praises Jack Lemmon as superior in confronting unwanted issues and Sissy Spacek as fully believable, highlighting its effective personal-level impact.

[Read the review](https://variety.com/1981/film/reviews/missing-2-1200425165/)

## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 1982. 

Ebert finds the film undermined by stylistic excesses that prevent a clear, powerful statement, though he praises the performances of Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon along with the scenes depicting bureaucratic frustration.

[Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/missing-1982)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/missing-1982.md