While by no means a perfect movie, what an ambitious and absolutely stunning debut for first-time director Aneesh Chaganty. At the ripe age of just 27 years, he took a movie that many people (including the cast) thought was an impossible task while others thought would come across as a complete trainwreck and made this into one of the absolute must-sees of 2018. Searching is so entuned with today’s technology, especially relating to social media, webcams, the dangers of communicating online with strangers, and the idea that an online persona can be so different than who a person is in real life. And Chaganty took into account that technology, including social media platforms, is constantly involving and knew that he didn’t have forever to write, cast, film, edit, market, and release this movie. Much in the same way that movies like The Net, Enemy of the State, and Firewall were both keen on the technology of their day and mesmerizing in how they portrayed on-screen fears that could happen to any of us, Searching does the same…but even better in my opinion (and I LOVED Enemy of the State when it was released in 1998). Other, more recent examples, including the 2014 Open Windows and the 2015 grizzly horror Unfriended, weren’t quite as successful as the other movies previously mentioned. But, just like those three movies, Searching will be virtually unwatchable in ten, five, maybe even two to three years from now because of the amazing advancements in technology. Chaganty realized this and knew that the timeframe from story origin to production had to happen quickly. Had this movie been released in even 2020 rather than 2018, we could be looking at it completely differently. But it wasn’t released too late. Instead, it was released at a time that reflected perfectly today’s social media and technology scares. Bravo to Chaganty for not this but for also creating a memorable movie.
Also, before I forget to mention this, this is a perfect movie to watch on DVD because of all of the extras you get. Two sections, in particular, are riveting. The first is on all of the clues that lead to what happened to our missing character in this movie while also other references to directors and movies that Chaganty admired growing up. After watching this extended extra, you’ll want to watch this film again just to see all of the straight-up clues that were missed. You’ll be kicking yourself. It’s SO good. The second extra was how difficult it was to create this film. It was shot completely from iPhones and computer screens (webcams, television news recordings, social media videos, etc.). There is never once a handheld camera that you would think of in the traditional sense. Think of a much more complicated Blair Witch Project minus the “horror…ha!” and the shakiness of the cameras. It was a decision made early in the process by Chaganty and one that even the most veteran of actors in the film was wary of. It was just so new age and risky that this could have been a complete hit or miss. Helping his cause, Chaganty actually filmed a version of this film using just his cell phone ahead of time. He was each character in the film and was able to lay down a blueprint of what he was looking for with his cast.
But back to our story. The film’s first ten minutes is basically a photo and video montage of the life of the Kim family. If your attention is there from the start, it’ll be hard for some to not well up with tears. It makes the first ten minutes of Disney’s Up feel like the feel-good story of the year. The film opens with a photo/video montage showing the life of the Kim family – father David (John Cho – Star Trek Into Darkness, American Pie), mother Pam (Sara Sohn), and only daughter Margot (Michelle La). Margot took up an interest in piano lessons from a young age. Pam was later diagnosed with lymphoma that went into remission, but she later experienced a relapse. They stood by their mother’s side until she passed away when Margot was in middle school. The opening montage was done so incredibly well that you can’t help but feel a connection to each of these characters to sympathize with the loss of life that David and Margot are going through.
We reconnect with father and daughter left behind a year or two after Pam’s passing. David is doing his best to raise his daughter, respecting her independence, but still trying to be a father by assigning her chores and following up with her when she fails to complete them. But, as a sophomore in high school, Margot has bigger things going on. She has her friends. She participates in a nightly study group once a week. She continues to take piano lessons (a bond that she developed with her mother) once a week. She does a good job of checking in with her father, whether it be via text, Facetime, phone, and (even occasionally) face-to-face interaction. His daughter is a good kid who has her own YouCast channel where she posts live-stream videos. And they have a great relationship, bonding more closely in certain ways after the passing of Pam, but also drifting away from each other in other ways as Margot finds herself needing her father less and less.
But when Margot fails to comes home after a study group one night, David becomes worried. He missed two phone calls from here. He cannot reach her at school. His worry quickly becomes dread as he continues to fail to reach her through all sorts of different avenues. It turns out that he didn’t know his daughter nearly as much as he thought. While he thought he had a grip on his daughter, it was actually Pam who knew all Margot’s friends, all of her day-to-day activities, and was really the parental presence in her life. Fortunately, Pam left David all of her passwords before she died. It helps him get into Margot’s address book of friends and some of her other social media accounts (not sure why, at 16, she hadn’t changed her passwords on at least some of these). In any case, a laundry list of things that could have happened to Margot begins to arise. There are plenty of clues that suggest she might have run away, that she might have been abducted, that she was out driving and got in a car wreck, that she’s lost with her phone, etc. Clues start to pile up, and, in no uncertain terms, we learn that it’s going to be a while before we see Margot again. And if and when we see her, is she going to still be alive. I won’t list all of the characters here, but basically, everyone in Margot’s life is a suspect at one time or another. The most important message we can gander here is that as well as a parent might know their child, that child reaches a certain where if they want to fly under the radar and not have their parents know something (or many things) about their life, they can certainly make that happen.
The distinguished Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing – NBC’s Will and Grace, Along Came Polly) is assigned the case. Messing’s return to the silver screen wasn’t a great one. To be honest, I didn’t even know it was here until the film was over. I thought that there was a lot of overacting in this movie…mostly by Messing and some by Cho, though Cho’s job was much more difficult…he was more or less talking to us through a computer monitor most of the time. He had more of an excuse. There’s a reason why only our best actors (Leonardo DiCaprio…The Revenant, Tom Hanks…Castaway, Will Smith...I Am Legend, Shailene Woodley…Adrift) get movies where they control the screen time for themselves for more time than not. It’s challenging to do. When it doesn’t work, it fails miserably. Cho is no DiCaprio/Hanks/Smith/Woodley. At least not yet.. And it showed. But it was still okay. Enough was going on with the story and more with Chaganty’ingenuityty. And, as mentioned in paragraph two, the extras must be watched after the film is over. The extras are better than the movie itself, and the movie was pretty damn good.
Obviously, I don’t have to say it, but the movie quickly turns into a cat and mouse game. Can David, Vick, and the police department find Margot before it’s too late? Also, I have never personally been involved in a child abduction case (Thank you, God), but the relationship between David and Vick was just weird. It was weird that they lacked chemistry and weird in the sense that they are calling each other in the middle of the night, telling each other where to meet without contacting other major players on the search team. It’s almost like they were separated partners during an episode of The Amazing Race. Thy dynamic didn’t work for me. The way they interacted didn’t make sense. Sometimes he would listen, and it would be fine. Sometimes he wouldn’t listen, and it would be fine. Sometimes he wouldn’t listen, and it wouldn’t be fine. Sometimes he would listen, and it wouldn’t be fine. There were some inconsistencies with the detective/grieving father relationship throughout Searching. There seemed to be some hidden agendas between some of our key characters too. Would this prove to be true, or was Chaganty just teasing us? You’ll get your answers because Chaganty was a genius with what he could control with this movie (which was basically everything outside of the mediocre acting).
This is a film to be seen if you are reading this before, say 2020. If you are reading this review after 2020 and considering it a potential movie to watch, I’d probably say to pass. It likely will feel very outdated by then with all of the technological advances between now and then.
Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 8/10 (David is a completely different man by the end of the movie than he was at the beginning…in a movie that shook the core of his foundation, that’s what you would expect)
Character Chemistry 6.5/10
Acting 6/10
Screenplay 9/10 (sure there are lots of coincidences, but that’s what is needed to keep a movie like this exciting…I couldn’t figure out the ending)
Directing 10/10 (masterpiece for a first-time director)
Cinematography 8/10
Sound 7.5/10 (unmemorable)
Hook and Reel 10/10 (ten-minute montage to open the movie had me hooked…the movie then never let up…bravo)
Universal Relevance 9.5/10 (this stuff happens every day, and it’s very disheartening)
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