“Searching”

MOVIE REVIEW

Aneesh Chaganty made his feature film debut as the director of the 2018 American mystery-thriller Searching. Chaganty and Sev Ohanian wrote the screenplay, and Timur Bekmambetov served as producer. The movie, which is entirely filmed on computers and mobile devices, centers on a father (John Cho) searching for his missing 16-year-old daughter, Michelle La, with the aid of a police investigator (Debra Messing). The lead actor in this major Hollywood thriller was an Asian American.

2018's August saw the release of the movie. The movie was a commercial and critical hit, and people praised the directing, performances, distinctive visual style, and unusual plot. Cho was a contender for the Best Male Lead award at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Margot Kim and her father David Kim reside in San Jose, California. His wife Pamela was given a lymphoma diagnosis and passed away before Margot started high school. Margot makes three calls to David one night but he is not available. The following morning, David is unable to reach Margot. David calls the piano teacher after school, thinking Margot has gone to her session, but he learns that she canceled six months earlier. He learns that she was taking the cash and transferring it to a Venmo account that has since been erased. When he phones the police, Detective Rosemary Vick is given the case. David discovers from Margot's accounts that she had isolated herself since Pamela's passing. Vick claims Margot created a bogus identification, and he displays traffic camera footage of her automobile outside the city, indicating that she might have fled.

Unconvinced, David learns that Margot had been chatting with a young lady by the name of "Fish n Chips" on the streaming service YouCast. Vick reports that Fish n Chips is innocent because he was seen in Pittsburgh when he vanished. David learns from Margot's Tumblr that she frequented Barbosa Lake, which is near the location of her last sighting and last observation. He discovers her Pokemon keychain by the lake. Her automobile is found by the cops submerged. There isn't her body there, but there is an envelope with the money for the piano lesson. A search party is organized, but the progress is slowed by a storm.

Vick informs David that he will no longer be able to help with the inquiry following a fight David had with a young child who claimed to know where Margot is. Unfazed, David views the crime scene photos gallery on TMZ, where he sees his brother Peter's jacket. Then he finds text exchanges between Peter and Margot that appear to indicate an incestuous relationship. Peter responds when he confronts him by saying they were only talking and sharing marijuana. He goes on to say that she was suffering from the loss of her mother, and he chastises David for failing to help his daughter when she was depressed. Vick calls in and tells him that ex-convict Randy Cartoff admitted to raping Margot, killing her, and then killing himself.

Margot's funeral is planned with an empty casket. David discovers that the website's stock photo and fish n chips' profile picture both depict the same woman as he uploads photos to a funeral streaming service. When he gets in touch with her, he learns that the woman is a stock model who has never heard of Margot and that the police had never contacted. Instead of reaching Vick when he tries to report this, the dispatcher learns that Vick volunteered to take the case and was not given it, despite what she claimed. As David searches Vick on Google, he learns that Vick knew Cartoff as a result of an ex-convict volunteer program. Vick is confronted by David at the funeral after he reports this to the sheriff; Vick is then taken into custody by the police.

Vick consents to confess in return for Robert, her son, receiving mercy. She reveals that he developed a crush on Margot and used the identity fish n chips to approach her. Margot believed Robert to be a working-class girl whose mother was ill when she gave the money to his Venmo account. Robert wanted to give Margot her money back because he felt bad about lying and had done so. Margot reacted angrily when Robert unexpectedly entered her car while she was smoking, and during the ensuing struggle, Robert unintentionally shoved her down a cliff and into a chasm that was 50 feet deep. Vick made the decision to conceal the incident by driving the car into the lake and fabricating a phony ID. Vick made Randy Cartoff the fall man and faked his confession and suicide after David visited the crime scene and discovered Margot's keychain and her car sunk in the lake.

Vick answers David's question about Margot's whereabouts by saying that she is still in the ravine, but even if she had survived the fall, she would not have been able to survive for five days without water. The third day of the hunt saw a storm that would have given Margot access to water, and David instructs the police to turn a return. Margot is discovered by the rescue team, seriously hurt but still alive.

Margot submitted her college application to major in piano two years later. David tells her something he was unable to tell her earlier: Pamela would have been proud of her. A tighter bond between the father and daughter is then shown when Margot changes her desktop photo from one of herself and Pamela to one David sent her off the two of them.

WATCH THE REVIEW VIDEO FOR MORE...