Remember the 2018 film "Searching," where we watched John Cho conduct a search for his missing teenage daughter, almost entirely through his internet activity, security cameras, and other onscreen interactions? Well, five years and a pandemic later, we're all living out more of our lives through screens than ever, and "Missing" reflects many new developments in technology, and new online services that have been adopted in our everyday lives. "Searching" writers Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian are back, with a new directing team, Will Merrick and Nick Johnson, for a new mystery to solve.
Eighteen year-old June Allen (Storm Reid) discovers that her mother Grace (Nia Long) and Grace's boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung) haven't returned from their vacation to Colombia. Frustrated with the authorities, June takes matters into her own hands, hiring a Taskrabbit worker named Javier (Joaquim de Almeida) to help search in Colombia, and breaking into protected accounts to dig into the pasts of her mother and Kevin. June is tech savvy, and uses online translators, social engineering techniques, and even Siri to her advantage. However, she makes mistakes, runs into many dead ends, and everyone in her life seems to be keeping secrets.
"Missing" is a more self assured film than "Searching," with a better facility with the visual language of screen life. The scene transitions are a big improvement, showing time skips, switches in POV, flashbacks, and some of June's thought processes through clever editing. There are a couple of funny moments built on common annoyances like reCAPTCHA and autocorrected texts, and some thrilling reveals that turn on little things like someone accidentally sending a live photo instead of a traditional one. A few moments, like lingering on a suspect's picture too long, or June's habit of filling the screen with pinned notes struck me as too much obvious hand-holding, but these were few and far between.
The mystery itself is very contrived, but it has to be for this kind of story. I found the writing very clever in the ways that it incorporate so many different apps and services, and keeps subverting our expectations about various characters. Unlike "Searching," "Missing" is less worried about trying to stay grounded in the real world and more willing to indulge in sensationalism. Some of the plot twists are a bit much, but this also makes "Missing" more fun to watch than "Searching," with a big action climax and a punch-the-air finale. This is one of the better mystery thrillers I've seen in a while.
I like all the actors here, but Storm Reid deserves the most praise for carrying the film. June is technically an adult, but still very much a teenager with a rebellious streak. Her exploration of her relationship with her mother, full of secrets and lies, forms the emotional backbone of the film. Reid is winning and sympathetic throughout, vulnerable enough to root for, and fallible enough to provide some tension. This movie and her work in "The Last of Us" should give her a good boost in visibility. It's also good to see Ken Leung in another role that properly takes advantage of his skill at playing untrustworthy types.
As with "Searching," "Missing" has excellent worldbuilding. June's screens are full of little easter eggs and humorous details that reward rewatching. Because June is more comfortable in this world than John Cho's character in "Searching," the pace is a little quicker and the more shortcuts are used. However, it's still a very accessible film and oddly more innovative and exciting from a filmmaking standpoint than nearly everything else I've seen so far in 2023.
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