Mark Reviews Movies: MISSING (2023)

Missing, Sony Pictures Releasing

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 19, 2023

Missing isn't exactly a sequel to Searching, the effective screen-based thriller about a father looking for his daughter and learning just how little he actually knows about her, but it uses the same gimmick, was produced by some of the same people, and immediately reminds us about that film. The story of the missing teenager has become fodder for a true-crime series on a streaming service, and in an age when such real-life mysteries and crimes are transformed into entertainment, people might be a bit more prepared to become amateur detectives, should some mystery or crime unfold in front of them.

That was a significant part of the appeal of the 2018 film by co-writer/director Aneesh Chaganty (who returns as a producer and with a story credit here). It's not just the onslaught of crime dramas on network television, cable TV, and all of those subscription streaming services that have a lot of people thinking about how to solve actual crimes or wondering what they might do under similar circumstances. The internet has made online sleuthing into a way to waste an hour or two on a slow day, a hobby or some part of certain jobs, and a way of life for certain lonely or nefarious folks. It's an indispensable tool when you need to find something or someone, and on the flip side, it could be a terrible weapon if you're on the receiving end of the search.

That other side of things may or may not be relevant to the story of co-writers/co-directors Nick Johnson and Will Merrick's film. It's best to leave certain thoughts open-ended and certain ideas speculative when it comes to discussing the particulars of the plot of this film. It is, after all, a thriller that sets out to—and regularly does—keep us on our toes in regards to what's actually happening, what could happen next, and what we might have overlooked, because information and circumstances keep changing with each new revelation.

In that way, it's almost as effective as its pseudo-predecessor, especially in how the constant perspective of looking at various screens gives us the sensation of following an amateur investigation as it unfolds. If Johnson and Merrick's follow-up doesn't possess the emotional punch of that initial film until the truth actually is revealed, it's a notable shortcoming in terms of comparison but a minor one in how well the filmmakers once again pull off this gimmick—for the most part.

With some home video footage and flashes of computer activity, a brief prologue suggests a death in the family, a mother's attempt to help her daughter grieve, and the hopeful start of a new life away from such pain. Twelve years later, 18-year-old June (Storm Reid) lives with her mother Grace (Nia Long) in Los Angeles. Mom is about to take a week-long vacation in Colombia with her current boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung), leaving June alone—apart from family friend Heather (Amy Landecker), an attorney, to check in occasionally. She has a plan to hold a big party on Father's Day in an attempt to forget that her own father died more than a decade ago.

When June arrives at the airport to pick up her mom and the mother's boyfriend with a plan to record a prank on Grace, the teen is confounded when neither arrives at baggage claim. The plane landed. A call to the hotel where they were staying, though, lets June know that all of their stuff is still there. June and Heather contact the U.S. embassy in Colombia, but with little that any government agency can do there, June begins the search for her mother.

Again, all of this information and all of these events are portrayed exclusively by way of screens, such as a montage of videos on social media accounts showing June's spiral at the party, and primarily on the desktop of our protagonist's laptop (The interconnectivity of various devices and accounts makes for really good intentional or accidental advertising for the brand of that computer and those assorted tools). Some of the detective work is admirably simple, such as the way June discovers there might be security footage of Grace and Kevin leaving the hotel by looking at pictures of the place.

Some of it is clever in how outside-the-box but logical the leaps are, such as how June hires a local gig-worker named Javi (Joaquim de Almeida) to do the legwork the federal agents won't. The believably simple detail that Kevin uses the same password for all his accounts starts June down the path of suspecting him of all sorts of sinister actions or potentially untoward behavior, but despite all of the clues and the browser searches and the digging through emails, the truth remains elusive.

The film's approach replicates the feeling of prodding around and then falling into a rabbit hole of information, and the virtual staging of the desktop—with June opening up various apps, keeping notes on the screen, and framing certain windows so that important details attract our attention—gives us an alternating sense of clarity and overwhelming confusion. During the second act, the screenplay loses some of that feeling of reward for paying attention, following June's thought processes, and theorizing along with our lead character, as information seems to be thrown at June—and, by extension, us—instead of letting her uncover it.

Even so, Missing pulls us along by making us feel like an indirect part of the process of solving the mystery. Once the film does reveal what is and has been happening, it adds a level of grounded fright to the story's tech-savvy potboiler trappings.

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