Movie Review: Missing

 

By using computer and phone screens to help tell a story about a father trying to locate his missing daughter, 2018's Searching found a way to effectively incorporate modern technology into a solid mystery thriller movie. Despite Searching's status as a modest box office hit ($75 million worldwide off a tiny $880,000 budget), "computer screen films" never became a trend like found footage horror did following the breakout success of Paranormal Activity and seemingly the only one that gained any traction at all following its release was the 2020 Zoom seance horror flick Host. The good news about the subgenre never taking off is that it still feels relatively fresh and that preserved state of originality paired with a solid idea from the writer/director team of Nick Johnson and Will Merrick-who served as the editors on Searching-paved the way for a standalone sequel to Searching-the aptly titled Missing-to be able to mimic the success of its predecessor.

Since Johnson and Merrick had a front row seat to witness Aneesh Chaganty's creative process on Searching as they assembled the final cut with him, they knew exactly what made that film work and the first-time directors wisely abided by the "If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It" philosophy on Missing. About the only notable changes to the formula Searching followed that they made were flipping around the dynamic to have a recent high school graduate (Storm Reid) search for her mother (Nia Long) that never returned from her trip to Colombia with her new boyfriend (Ken Leung) and all of the twists builds towards a big reveal that gives way to a more suspenseful final act than the abrupt "oh shucks, guess you got me!!!"ending of the first one. Other than that, Missing just adeptly uses the seemingly limitless new tools the online-linked devices that have come out since Searching was filmed back in 2016 to track digital footprints, get real-time video footage of a certain place, etc. to help gradually build suspense and unravel different layers of a case that soon reveals itself to be far more complicated than just a couple of American tourists disappearing in a foreign country. While the proceedings are definitely a little bit silly-especially when the full truth is revealed, the excellent pace at which the mystery around the case unfolds and solid performances from Reid-who is able to capture the naive, misguided sense of fearlessness that a lot of 18-year olds would bring to navigating this dire situation and Joaquim de Almeida as the friendly gig worker Reid's character hires to complete tasks for her on the ground in Colombia keep it consistently engaging. A breaking point for "screen films" almost certainly exists, but as long as films like Missing continue to cleverly and efficiently use this style to make solid genre movies, that saturation threshold isn't going to be hit anytime soon. 

Grade: B