SEARCHING is a high-concept thriller presented with a unique sort of found footage gimmick. The entire film unfolds exclusively on screens: Skype, broadcast TV news shows, Facebook, YouTube videos, Videocast, instant messaging, Google searching, etc. Yes, we’ve seen this before (the UNFRIENDED franchise and OPEN WINDOWS), but it’s done well here and mostly works as a compelling mystery told through the modern technology and social media devices we use every day.
SEARCHING opens with a series of google calendar entries and videos sadly chronicling the death of a young wife and mom from cancer (shades of the opening of UP). A few years later the dad David (John Cho) and daughter Margot (Michelle La), now 16, enjoy a close relationship, texting each other several times a day and keeping a date to watch The Voice together. Late one night, Margot calls David in the middle of the night, and the following day he retrieves her missed calls, but can’t reach her. Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing), a sympathetic single parent herself, is assigned to the missing person case, but when the investigation stalls, David cracks into his daughter’s laptop to help put the puzzle pieces together through cyberspace. Rummaging through her texts and favorite sites, he finds a disturbing side of a daughter he never knew. She’d been skipping her piano lessons and using that money mysteriously. We learn the seemingly straight-laced Margot was more unstable and deeply affected by her mom’s death than David realized.
SEARCHING timely gimmick makes for narrative limits, but also helps ground the movie in a mostly believable premise that keeps you guessing. It’s impressive how committed the movie, directed by Aneesh Chaganty, is to its all-screens format, even down to its soundtrack. If there were inorganic elements, I didn’t spot them. I did spot some implausible twists and plot points though (the girl is missing from an suburban lake for just five days and she’s not only declared officially dead, but they have a funeral for her!), but to its credit, the story is engrossing, the audience does want to see how the (admittedly trashy) mystery plays out, and the father-daughter dynamic at the film’s center seems real. John Cho gives a strong central performance as the grieving dad and Joseph Lee is good as his shady brother. The weak link is Messing, whose stiff performance can’t be blamed on the ridiculous way she’s tied into the story’s twists. SEARCHING is a flawed but surprisingly decent flick, and the unique on-screen framework gives the narrative a little extra punch.
3 1/2 of 5 Stars
