Written and directed by Aneesh Chaganty, the movie uses a decidedly different technique to present its story. Ninety percent of the film is seen on computer screens, as the principals use Facetime to communicate. If youâre not accustomed to spending time on your laptop, this may become a little more than you want to deal with, as Google searches, emails, texts, and Facebook pages are intermingled with computer screen conversations. The technology used is well past anything I am familiar with, but is fascinating to watch.
John Cho stars as David Kim, a widowed father of a sixteen-year-old girl. He wakes up one morning and finds his daughter didnât come home the night before. Her school advises him she wasnât in attendance the day before and the mystery begins. He contacts the police and Detective Rosemary Vick, played by Debra Messing, begins the investigation. After a day and a half with nothing concrete to go on, David discovers his daughterâs laptop is still home. He opens it and begins searching all of her social media, photographs, etc. in an effort to locate some kind of lead. This is where the technical wizardry goes into âhyper drive,â leaving me in the dust, although Iâm certain some of you are already at that level. I prefer to stay where Iâm at, typing movie reviews and ordering from Amazon.
Searching
Entertainment Rating: â â â
Rating: PG-13, one or two profanities
Possible Oscar Nominations: Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick, Film Editing
Slowly but surely, David begins to realize that his daughter had a âsecret lifeâ that he knew nothing about and his efforts to unravel that story become the central theme, using the magic of the internet and facetime conversations. The police, meanwhile, conduct their own investigation using more traditional methods. Eventually the two investigations begin to come together. It was fun to watch modern laptop technology at its best, and as clues begin to appear I had one critique, some of them were a little too orchestrated for my taste.
John Cho is outstanding as the frantic father, and his daughter Margot, played by Michelle La, also does an excellent job. She appears mostly on various videos pulled up on her laptop, because of course she is missing. Is the ending satisfying? Youâll have to see for yourself.
As an aside, when I pulled into the parking lot of the theater on a Thursday evening, there were three new releases on screen that night, and a dozen cars in the parking lot. Thatâs all you need to know about the drawing power of some of the films out there right now. There isnât much. The good news is there are several movies on the horizon that may be worth your time. First, the latest re-make of A Star is Born, starring Bradley Cooper and Lady GaGa, looks like a winner. Viola Davisâ newest film Widows could also make the list, and last but not least, The First Man, starring Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong, the true story of the first mission to the moon. The early hype on this one is âsensational and riveting.â Letâs hope so as its one of the greatest stories of our lifetime.
