Missing Pieces

The film opens with Scott Cody visiting his father, Atticus, on their family ranch for Christmas. The atmosphere is strained due to the death of Scott's mother in a car accident twelve years prior, an event for which Scott feels responsible and Atticus has never explicitly forgiven him. After a tense holiday, Scott returns to his life as a painter in Resureccion, Mexico. Shortly after, Atticus receives a devastating phone call: Scott has reportedly shot himself. Atticus travels to Mexico to claim the body, but he is immediately struck by inconsistencies. He finds a one-way ticket to Frankfurt in Scott's name, four shells in the gun despite it being a supposed suicide, and a missing rug from Scott's home. He also discovers a Radiotone recorder that Scott's brother David had given him, which contains a recording of the moments surrounding the 'suicide.' Atticus meets Renata, Scott's former lover, and her fiancé Stuart Chandler, who try to convince him to accept the suicide and go home. However, Atticus's investigation leads him to a local garage where he learns Scott's car was recently repaired after hitting a 'cow'—which turns out to be a local woman named Carmen Martinez. Atticus eventually discovers that Scott is actually alive and hiding in the hills. Scott reveals that his friend Reinhardt Schmidt was the one driving the car during the hit-and-run. Reinhardt had been blackmailing Scott and wearing Scott's clothes and signature sunglasses. Carmen's brother, Martinez, seeking revenge, shot Reinhardt thinking he was Scott. Scott, finding the body, panicked and faked his own suicide to escape the situation, using the rug as a body bag for Reinhardt. With Atticus's encouragement, Scott turns himself in to the Mexican authorities. The mystery is fully resolved when a blind grandmother who witnessed the accident identifies the driver not by sight, but by the fact that he was wearing 'blind man's glasses' (sunglasses) at night—a trademark of Reinhardt, not Scott. This clears Scott of the hit-and-run. Scott serves a short sentence for concealing the body, and the film concludes with him returning to the family ranch. Atticus has built a new studio for Scott, symbolizing their reconciliation and a shared future where they finally move past the 'missing pieces' of their family history.