Review of Searching (2018) by Antonius B — 20 Sep 2018

Every parent's worst nightmare plays out in this film directed by Aneesh Chaganty. A widower (John Cho) finds that his teenage daughter (Michelle La) has disappeared, and begins frantically going through her social media and online presence in the attempt to find clues about what may have happened to her. Helping him is a detective (Debra Messing), and the more he discovers, the more he finds that he doesn't really know his daughter at all, which is further unsettling. The film thus has several gut-wrenching components of loss - losing the wife/mother (Sara Sohn) to cancer, having a child disappear, and gradually discovering the image you have of a loved one is woefully incomplete - for isn't disillusionment another form of loss?

Creative in its story-telling, which is entirely from the perspective of interfacing to various devices and applications in the modern age, the film also serves as a highly realistic 'documentary' for the way we connect to the world for so much of our lives. It's hard to believe now, but in a few decades the technology shown will likely be viewed as quaint, and in time may fascinate watchers of 'old' movies as much as little elements in films from the 1930's tickle us. I was worried this might be too gimmicky or impede the film in some way, but it doesn't at all. At the same time, while the computer interfaces feel highly realistic, there were elements in the story that weren't, for example, its timeline, and some of the actions of the characters, but I don't want to spoil it.

There is real tension as the film plays out, because of the emotional stakes involved, and because we really don't know what's going to happen. There are just enough possible suspects and aspects of the evidence that we get led down a few different paths in our mind, perhaps similar to the roller coaster ride the father is on. I'm not sure if John Cho's performance has enough angst and grief in it, but he's reasonably strong, as is the rest of the cast, and in a very interesting way, the film explores the depths of parental devotion. Solid film.