BLANCHETT, CATE

(1969– )

   As Maggie Gilkeson in Ron Howard’s The Missing (2003), Australian Cate Blanchett played one of the finest roles in post–September 11 American cinema Westerns. After Gilkeson’s daughters are abducted by Indians, the single mother sets out in pursuit. Like John Wayne in The Searchers (1956), she becomes obsessed with finding her children, as one obstacle after another falls her way. Blanchett, who has been nominated for an Oscar three times and has won once, provides a brilliant performance, among the best by a female actor in cinema Westerns.

   See also WOMEN.