SEARCHING: High Tech with Taut Action

A screen-based movie with plenty of thrills.

The phenomenon of movies that take place entirely on screens continues with Searching, a thriller wrapped in a family tragedy wrapped in a MacBook.

Starring John Cho as David Kim, Searching centers around the disappearance of his daughter Margot (Michelle La), a straight-laced high school student still getting over the death of her mother Pam (Sara Sohn). As one might expect, things aren’t what they seem, and David realizes he doesn’t know his daughter at all.

Director Aneesh Chaganty pulls off this essentially camera-less movie using all of the things we take for granted in modern technological life. Lots of FaceTime-ing, texting, and web surfing make the magic happen.

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The police get involved in the character of Detective Vick (Debra Messing). She works with David to unearth exactly what happened to Margot in her final hours of communication before going poof.

Set in Silicon Valley, this is a modern take on every parent’s worst nightmare, a suburban family with one tragedy on the heels of another. Even after Pam passes away from cancer, things appear to be fine in the Kim household, but the more David discovers, the more he realizes just how blind he had been.

The final half hour has more than one twist, and spoiling it would be easy to do. Suffice it to say, the action is never over even when it’s over. This is the quintessential date-night movie.

With top-shelf actors and a “page turner” of a story, Searching is the kind of mid-budget feature audiences can get behind. If it has success, expect to see more from this director and this genre going forward. Maybe next time, we will watch it on our phones.