Anthony's Film Review - Searching (2018)

A tense mystery presented in a very unique fashion...

The 2018 mystery thriller film Searching, directed by Aneesh Chaganty, tells a story in an unconventional but creative manner. From beginning to end, everything you see is some type of electronic display, whether it's a computer screen, smartphone screen, television screen, or security camera monitor. It's actually not the first time anything like this has been done. The movies Unfriended and Paranormal Activity may come to mind if you've seen them. If there is one big takeaway from Searching, it's that a solid story can be told using whatever method is available, as long as the story is told well.

The beginning of the movie is presented rather neatly. We get to see David Kim (played by John Cho) spending quality time with his wife Pamela and daughter Margot over the years, shown in home videos and pictures on a desktop computer. Other apps, like a calendar, help show life in this family as Margot grows up and Pamela ultimately dies from cancer. This entire sequence is pleasing to watch. It's one of those things where you first nod at the idea of it and smile as you see how creative it can really be. It does make you anticipate how this visual style will play out for the rest of the movie.

Let me take a moment to comment further on the way the visuals show emotion. Certainly, you can see emotion in pictures and videos of the characters in this story. But believe or not, even the computer applications can illustrate a character's thoughts and feelings, depending on how the apps are used. For example, in an instant chat program, David may be typing a message, then deletes it rather than sending it, which illustrates reluctance and changing one's mind on something. If he is looking at multiple web sites in a browser, stopping at a site and zooming in on something shows curiosity and a need to look further. There may be more, but I'll let you discover them yourself. Just know that there are many ways to infer a character's psyche based on actions on a computer. With that in mind, here's the plot.

David is going through life as usual when he gets three missed phone calls from his daughter, and she doesn't respond to any of his calls, voicemails, or text messages. After plenty of time passes, he calls the police to report his daughter missing. Detective Rosemary Vick (played by Debra Messing) is assigned to his case. Even so, law enforcement can only go so far based on what information is available. Hence, David provides assistance for Vick by finding a way into Margot's social media accounts, contacting every person in her friends lists, and putting together a spreadsheet listing each individual and their responses to his pertinent questions. As he does this, you can begin to feel the anxiety of not knowing where his daughter is and the constant hope of coming across a vital clue.

The effort does pay off, though not without emotional stress. The things David discovers about Margot are quite startling, especially as he is a father who doesn't really know his own daughter as well as he thinks. There is worry that Margot has been doing some risky things and may have been in contact with an unscrupulous person or two. Then things get worse, and worse again. All of this leads to a rather astonishing conclusion, the kind that really comes out of nowhere in a well-crafted mystery story. By this time, you are so immersed in the story that you forget about the film's style of presenting electronic screens.

John Cho has done plenty of movies over the years. He played a young Asian guy in Better Luck Tomorrow and one of the title characters of the comedy movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, plus its sequels. Then there's his role as Sulu in the Star Trek reboot films. Now heading into middle age, he plays a father whose happiness is replaced over time by fear, grief, and anger. His performance here is solid and certainly one to remember. Based on his work here, this actor ought to get more movie work, whatever the genre might be. And if you like this actor already, you'll certainly enjoy him in this movie.

On my 1-to-10 rating scale, Searching holds as a solid 8. It does get really good near the end, such that the needle moves closer to a 9. But when I look at the movie as a whole, it averages out to between an 8 and a 9, and closer to the lower value. So I give this movie an 8 out of 10, meaning it's a pretty good one to see. It's also a cool movie that is fitting for today's digital age with greater online interactions thanks to smartphones and social media. Never before has it been fun to watch nothing but computer screens and the like for more than one-and-a-half hours.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Searching, visit the Internet Movie Database.