4.2/5.0
A riveting modern day investigation. With all the technology, social media platforms, and offline information made accessible to us through phones, tables, or computers we find that our personal lives can be stored into tiny bits of data. Moments, memories, and emotions transcribed into codes of data into our technology. Searching captures the meaning of storing personal information as well as personal emotion into the vast world we call the internet. David Kim is the father of a young missing teenager; Margot Kim. After not returning home from a night of studying an investigation is underway. With officials taking care of the formal aspect of the missing-persons case, David find his own innovative method in efforts to find his daughter before its too late. While delving into the world that is his daughter’s private life through her computer, he finds he might have never known his daughter after all. This modern-day investigation unfolds via the technology we all use today. Desperate father David searches for his daughter before time runs out.
Spoilers Below
Searching was a perfect modern-day thriller piquing the interest of many every day users of technology. A well-organized mystery that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Honestly the best way I’ve seen this film described is as a father searching for “digital bread crumbs.” It’s perfect.
Going into this film it’s hard to pinpoint what mystery is about to unravel. Given the sense I interpreted from the trailer, I assumed a simple “daughter goes missing and it’s too late to find her.” But given the initial family home videos at the beginning I got a different vibe altogether. After Pamela (wife and mother) passes, the relationship between David and Margot is authentic. Death is hard and no one deals with those emotions the same way. David becomes awkward and detached and finds difficulty in coming to terms with his wife’s death. Throughout the film we see him constantly avoiding using her name, bringing her up, or in some cases hiding old memories so as to escape the reality of it. While Margot, a young daughter who has lost her mother, feels the need to connect with someone, but doesn’t find that comfort in her father. The dynamic in their relationship after their mother’s death is raw and shows the difficulty that comes after a parent has passed. It’s uncomfortable and both characters express their grief differently. As the plot unfolds we get to know Margot on a more personal level and the way she feels about her mother’s death. Truthfully, to me it became very obvious as to why Margot quit piano lessons, uh hello David? Anyways, I appreciated the contrasting forms of grief each of them had.
The film in its entirety was filmed via various formed of technology, even up to the “Google Maps.” Even when David was “offline” we were only able to see him through the “FaceTime” application on the laptop. Just as Unfriended (2014) was filmed, it’s a new take on the virtual reality we have all become accustomed to. Personally I am an ASMR fan and hearing the clicking of the mouse and keyboard I was getting ~tingles. Anyhow, as David dove further and further into Margot’s personal online information I got a bit uncomfortable. I was worried of what he might find because, I started to think, “What if that was my computer?” I know there’s plenty of things stored online and offline that I would rather my father didn’t find. Which made me think of just how much of our personal lives are stored into bits of data on this intricate wiring, coding, and metal we call our laptops. As the film goes on I can’t help, but think Margot is a lot more sketchy than I initially made her out to be. Especially the scene where David finds the conversation between Margot and Peter’s (uncle) conversation. Oh. My. God. I really wasn’t prepared for what that conversation was implying and truth be told I’m happy that it was not what we thought it to be. Seeing everything filmed via technology made it easier to relate to in a way? Maybe. I don’t know, but either way I loved Unfriended (2014) and I am a big fan of this as well.
Did this film have plot twists? YES. I’m so glad that it did. When everything was pinned on Randy Cartoff, I immediately felt heavily disappointed. My mind was refusing to believe that this was the simplicity of how the film would end and that the mystery, was really not a mystery. But if I do think about it for a second, a lot of the times these random disappearances/abductions are all they are; random. Unfortunately that could have been Margot, just in the wrong place at the wrong time when a stranger with bad intentions happens to appear. Although for the sake of the film I’m impressed that they switched it up on us. I had a gut feeling this couldn’t be how it ended. I started to think back and reflect why was there so much buildup on Detective Vick’s son. That one scene where David and Vick are Facetiming and Robert walks in was a little too questionable for me to leave alone. Perhaps I was just overthinking it. In any case, I was completely satisfied with the finale case and the way it unfolded and was presented to us.
Searching was a great movie and I recommend it to all my mystery/thriller lovers. John Cho played a dedicated father and his persistence was touching. He refused to believe that he did all he could have done and although I wish he didn’t, he blamed himself for her disappearance. I imagine as a father it can be difficult seeing a different side of your daughter, the person you raised, as a complete stranger. Honestly David was on some Liam Neeson Taken level shit. Sidenote: Fuck you Abigail