THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

I wrote those words last year after seeing Gone on the festival circuit. Since then the ABC series Missing, with Ashley Judd, has come and gone, telling a similar story with, predictably, more action and hetero main characters. Had the ratings been higher Gilleran would have been swamped with offers for the rights to her story, since Hollywood would rather emulate success than risk originality.

Gone begins with Kathy telling an interviewer her story. There are occasional cutaways to photos or videos, but mostly it's her in close-up. After 21 years as a police officer in Cortland, N.Y., she retired in 2006 and went to work at an animal shelter. Her gay son, Aeryn (the difference in spelling is not addressed), was working for the United Nations in Vienna, Austria. He came home for 10 days in September 2007. She was planning to sell her house and go to live with him in Austria for six months.

On Oct. 31, 2007, Kathy got a phone message that Aeryn hadn't been seen for two days. He was last seen running naked from the Kaiserbr�ndl, an exclusive sauna (bathhouse), after some kind of altercation inside. A short time later a fisherman reported seeing a body in a nearby canal.

When Kathy goes to Vienna our movie expectations kick in. Like Judd in Missing and Liam Neeson in Taken, she's going over there to kick some ass! Well, not quite...

First Kathy has to get pissed off enough. She consults the police, who keep changing their story after a cursory investigation led them to a verdict of "spontaneous suicide." After all, Aeryn had been gay (he'd actually been Mr. Gay Austria) and was HIV-positive. However, he wasn't—he'd tested negative days before his disappearance.

Once she realizes the police won't help and determines to find the truth for herself, you'd think Kathy would be able to put her training and experience to better use than she does. Despite the language barrier—she finds that many Austrians don't speak English, at least to her—she meets a few people who try to help her. One even gives her a tour of the lavish sauna where Aeryn was last seen.

Coincidentally, a gay and lesbian support group within the police force was formed a few weeks before Kathy's visit. With their help and her first-hand knowledge of how police cover-ups work, she should be able to uncover more than she does.

But the sad fact is, real life doesn't always play out as neatly as a movie script. Where Gone should have an action climax it has pleasant reminiscences of the beauty of Vienna instead, and where there should be resolution, there's what may be seen as anticlimax.

Gone: The Disappearance of Aeryn Gillern cries out for a dramatic remake, not to mention a real-life happy ending, but writer-producer-directors Gretchen Morning and John Morning have done a remarkable job with what they have, thanks in large part to the "star" they've discovered.