Recently-widowed man becomes desperate when his 16-year-old daughter disappears and the police investigation leads nowhere. He soon decides to use her laptop to contact her friends and search for any clues to her whereabouts. A film by Aneesh Chaganty, starring John Cho and Debra Messing.
searching
Aneesh Chaganty
(2018)
David Kim (John Cho) lives with his wife Pamela (Sara Sohn) and their daughter Margot (Michelle La). Everything seems to be going well for this ordinary family until one day Pamela falls ill and dies, leaving only father and daughter behind.
One morning, David wakes up to find that Margot had called him, but he missed the call because he was asleep. When he tries calling Margot back, he discovers he can’t reach her. Strangely, she’s not responding to his text messages either. David starts to worry. Then he remembers that it’s Friday and Margot should be at her piano lesson. He calls the piano teacher Vartohi Shahinian (Sylvia Minassian) to get in touch with his daughter, but the teacher also doesn’t know where Margot is. To his surprise, Mrs. Shahinian tells David that Margot had cancelled her piano lessons six months ago.
David tries to find his daughter’s friends’ phone numbers and contacts Isaac’s house. He speaks with Isaac’s mother (Melissa Disney), who tells him that her son and his friends, including David’s daughter, planned to go camping in the mountains where there might not be any cell phone service. The kids should be back tomorrow.
The next morning, Isaac (Connor McRaith) calls David and tells him that he never met up with Margot even though they had made plans. She didn’t show up, and he hasn’t been able to reach her since Friday. This confirms David’s worst fears that his daughter has disappeared. David immediately calls the police.
Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) is assigned to help search for Margot. She receives a report that Margot used a fake ID and that traffic camera footage shows her driving out of town, suggesting the possibility that Margot may have run away from home. However, David refuses to believe that his daughter would run away.
When David tries to investigate through the internet and friends at school, he discovers that he barely knows anything about his daughter. Ever since losing her mother, Margot had changed. She has withdrawn from everyone and hasn’t socialized with anyone.
Directed by Indian-American filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty in his directorial debut from a screenplay he co-wrote with Sev Ohanian, Searching is a compelling mystery thriller film. The filming tells the story entirely through computer and phone screens, and it’s executed brilliantly.
The narrative is incredibly engaging and thrilling as the story unfolds. It’s filled with suspense that keeps me on the edge of my seat. I’d call it one of the outstanding films of 2018.
Searching premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 21 January 2018. It had a limited theatrical release in the United States on 24 August, before expanding nationwide on 31 August. The film grossed over $75 million worldwide against an $880,000 budget.
