David Kim goes about his daily life, not thinking anything is wrong. He checks in with his daughter Margot to shame her for not taking out the trash and see where she's going to be, then goes to sleep like any normal day. When he wakes up, the trash is still not done and she doesn't pick up her phone all day. After some misdirections and 36 hours go by, David discovers that Margot is missing. Detective Rosemary Vick is assigned to his case and he helps the investigation by questioning all of her Facebook friends and finding out when they last saw her and their alibis. He throws himself into the work, hoping that she will be found alive.
Searching takes the Unfriended format of the computer screen as the only view and takes it into the more restrained thriller genre. The beginning is brilliant. It shows the parents' computer home screens from Windows XP and scrolls through videos, photos, emails, and calendars to show Margot being born, growing up, David's wife Pamela being diagnosed with cancer, the family bonding together and working out with her to get healthy, and her remission. When Margot is in middle school, the cancer comes back and doesn't go away. The way it's shown is in videos and photos from Pamela's hospital room and in the calendar. Her coming home date moves forward a month and then gets deleted, which was surprisingly heartwrenching. Without any narration, the story of this family is told to inform what's going on as the story moves forward.
John Cho as David Kim shows every emotion a parent would if their child was missing. He's indignant if anyone implies anything negative about Margot. He repeatedly insists that he knew her (when he clearly didn't) and tries to make amends by doing absolutely anything he can to help the investigation. He calls people, talks to them on Facetime, and even plants some cameras when he thinks he's got the perpetrator. His desperation is palpable and he clearly deteriorates as the film goes on due to sleep deprivation and emotional distress. Debra Messing is equally good as Rosemary Vick. She keeps her cool as a police officer and seems very professional in how she goes about the investigation. The only subpar acting was Rosemary's son Robert. He's supposed to have some sort of special need, but I initially thought he was just intimidated by his overbearing mom who is always whisking him out of the room or yelling at him. I assumed that was the intent, but the acting didn't really convey that.
David's journey changes drastically as more and more time passes. Everyone he interviews seems pretty unconcerned, kind of over the whole situation, and awkward. No one seems to be close to her. She eats lunch alone every day and no one seems to anything about what's going on with her. When she's officially missing and the case goes public, those same people completely change. Suddenly, everyone is praying for her and clutching their pearls when they had already heard about it. The same teens who couldn't tell her from anyone else are making videos crying crocodile tears for likes and views or making incredibly insensitive jokes about the situation. This is a fairly minor part of the story, but it rang so true to me.
The clues for the mystery are carefully plotted out. Seemingly insignificant details have greater significance later in the film or if you have an eagle eye. I caught some details early in, but I was lulled into thinking it was insignificant since it didn't come up again until the end. There are still red herrings, secret conversations, insensitive commenters online, and a variety of other misdirections. The rift with his daughter and her odd behavior really boils down to not being able to process or talk about her mother's death with the only person who would understand. David never mentions her, maybe to spare Margot from pain, but it proves to build a wall between them instead. She chooses to cope on her own, sometimes in unhealthy ways, and isolating herself from everyone in her life. Having this as the base of the film really grounded it and made the stakes mean something.
Searching is a thriller with a heartfelt squishy center. The ending surprised me, especially when there was a sort of false ending where I thought "this ending sucks!" until more information came to light. I don't feel the need to spoil it since it's not ambiguous or anything, but it's definitely satisfying without being completely fantastical. I want to see this movie again to catch the tiny details that I missed the first time.
My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins
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