Missing
Director: Nicholas D. Johnson, Will Merrick
Writer: Nicholas D. Johnson, Will Merrick
Cast: Storm Reid, Nia Long, Ken Leung, Tim Griffin, Amy Landecker, Megan Suri, Joaquim de Almeida, Daniel Henney
Seen on: 24.7.2023

Content Note: domestic violence, stalking

Plot:
June (Storm Reid) has a great week ahead of her: her mother Grace (Nia Long) is going on vacation with her boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung) and June plans to capitalize on her alone time. But when it’s time to pick them up from the airport, June goes there in vain: neither her mother nor Kevin actually return from Colombia. Since an international police investigation is not easy, June decides to do whatever she can from Los Angeles to find out what happened – and with the internet at her fingertips, she can get very creative in her investigation.

Missing has the same set-up (and producers, I think) as Searching, telling its entire story through screens and cameras that are actually within the story itself. While I still like that idea, the film lacked a certain something to be really exciting.

Going back to my own review of it, I remember Searching a little more fondly than right after I saw it. This is probably due to the novelty of the gimmick and the way they really stuck well with it for the most part, plus John Cho. With Missing, I think that it’s going to be the other way round: I will remember it a little less fondly than during watching it – mostly because they really strain the set-up a lot.

While the increasingly unlikely twists and turns were already part of Searching and are simply a part of the genre, they really strain credibility to the point of losing the suspension of disbelief a couple of times. But more than the plot, they really strain the ways they capture some of the images. Would June really leave her cameras on in this way? Would they really be videocalling all of the time?

Nevertheless, it is rather fun to watch June find new angles to investigate all the time. And that the plot is rather unlikely also means that it keeps you guessing which can be fun, especially since the clues are there and it’s not just “and here is some info we never told you, so you wouldn’t guess”. Reid does an excellent job in a demanding role, making you thoroughly engaged with her search.

I am not much of a crime person, so that may also be part of the reason I wasn’t that excited about the film. But if you like thrillers, do watch it – you’ll probably have fun.

Summarizing: not bad.