Missing review

MISSING: 

TECH-THEMED THRILLER DELIVERS THE CHILLS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

SCREEN GEMS AND STAGE 6 FILMS

Storm Reid in Missing

 

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MILD SEARCHING SPOILERS!

A teenage girl scours the web in search of her missing mother in…Missing, the new thriller written and produced by Aneesh Chaganty and a standalone sequel to his 2018 film Searching. I enjoyed Searching a lot when I saw it and thought it was an interesting take on the mystery/Gone Girl-esque genre as the entire film takes place on a computer screen which had been done before in films like Unfriended, but it didn’t feel as gimmicky, and this style of filmmaking benefited the story it was telling, not to mention an electrifying John Cho performance I mean, damn! 

            Now, we have the sequel with newcomers Nick Johnson and Will Merrick in the directors’ chairs and Storm Reid (12 Years a Slave, A Wrinkle in Time, The Invisible Man (2020)) in the lead role. The big difference between this and Searching is where Searching was about a father looking for his missing daughter, Missing revolves around the daughter looking for her parent. 

            I was a little skeptical when I first heard about it, while I thought it looked fine judging by the trailer I felt I didn’t need Searching to become a franchise and was like “Were people asking for this?”. This sounds like one of those lazy “Here We Go Again” sequels where they copy and paste the plot of the first movie and change a few details around, but the filmmakers managed to deliver an equally fascinating thriller that has a few references to its predecessor in there but stands on its own quite nicely. 

            The film follows June (Reid), a rebellious teenage girl who parties hard the night her mother Grace (Nia Long-The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Friday, Soul Food) leaves on a vacation in Colombia. But when her mother mysteriously goes disappears, June searches the web for answers behind her disappearance and to hopefully find her before it’s too late. 

            However, as she digs deeper and deeper she discovers that her search begins to raise more questions than answers. 

            The film also stars Ken Leung (Rush Hour, Lost, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) as Kevin, Joaquim de Almeida (Clear and Present Danger, Desperado, Fast Five) as Javier, Daniel Henney (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, The Last Stand, Big Hero 6) as Elijah Park, Amy Landecker (Dan in Real Life, A Serious Man, Transparent) as Heather, Tim Griffin (American Sniper, The Gift, Central Intelligence) as James, Megan Suri (Valentine’s Day, The MisEducation of Bindu, Never Have I Ever) as Veena, and Rainn Wilson (The Office, Super, Cooties) as Spencer. 

            Overall, Missing is a worthy follow-up to Searching that also works as a gripping thriller on its own merits. It could have easily been just a paint-by-numbers semi-remake of Searching so I’m grateful this film was able to hit familiar beats as its predecessor and do something vastly different with the story and mystery. 

            What makes this film different from Searching is that the daughter is stuck thousands of miles away from her missing parents so she can’t really get into a car and drive over to where clues might be found unlike John Cho in the first film and has to rely solely on her technology and the aid of a Colombian errand man she hires to help crack the case. 

            Even when it does start hitting the same bullet points as the first film (Character discovers details about missing person that don’t make sense, unusual financial transactions, strange locations they went to, etc.), it doesn’t hit them exactly and will often throw your for a loop. There was a moment when a supporting character was shown to be a possible suspect and for a moment I thought “Oh, this is like what they did with the detective character from Searching”, but it turned out to be a complete fake-out and once the true mastermind was revealed, I was genuinely surprised. 

            It also helps that the acting is superb especially from Storm Reid who is excellent in this movie and does a great job giving a very heartfelt performance as well as having strong chemistry with the supporting characters, some of which are standouts themselves. Joaquim de Almeida in particular is the biggest standout as this errand man in Colombia whom Reid’s character hires to help find her mom, he steals many of the scenes he’s in as this very relatable, everyday guy who is extremely flawed himself and even goes through his own arc throughout the film.

            I don’t remember if I brought this up in my Searching review, but the editing in both films is absolutely flawless which is hard to believe since both films take place almost entirely on computer and smartphone screens. Every little detail on the main characters’ computer screens is well thought out whether it’s brief pauses during text messages or chats, jumping in-between different apps and websites, and even something as mundane as recovering a password has all this attention to detail put into it and I commend the editors and filmmakers for their work. 

            While Searching may be a little stronger in terms of its plot, Missing is a surprisingly well-crafted mystery that sprinkles a few references to the first film, but does a great job being a standalone film. I guess, you could say this is technically an example of a “Here We Go Again” sequel done right and succeeds where others like Taken 2 and The Hangover: Part II have failed.