(3 / 4)
Engrossing cyber thriller that stretches the scope of its story as far as its style allows, at times to its detriment.
Searching is a straightforward tale of David Kim (John Cho), a single father who one day awakens to every parent’s worst nightmare when his 15-year old daughter Margot (Michelle La) doesn’t return home from her late-night study session at a friend’s house. What follows is a desperate father working with a local Detective (Debra Messing) to trace his daughter’s whereabouts via her computer. Searching is part of a long line of thrillers such as Unfriended and the Paranormal Activity series that seek to imitate real life by portraying the story’s events strictly through the electronic devices being used by the characters. By now this manner of storytelling is far from an innovative technique, however, Searching manages to have some unique tricks up its sleeve to set this thriller apart from the rest.
Instead of simply thrusting the audience into a typical day in the life of our protagonists, Searching wisely takes the time to establish a strong emotional underpinning for the audience to connect with the characters. Through the use of a beautiful montage reminiscent of the first 10 minutes of Pixar’s Up, the film instantly makes you empathize with this family, which makes it all the more engaging once the story’s events throw these characters in the midst of peril. This level of emotional depth is especially impressive as the film adheres to its rule of events being told exclusively through an electronic device, with this montage being a series of videos and messages all displayed on the Kim family PC.
The level of emotional investment the audience will have is no doubt thanks in large part to John Cho’s strong lead performance as he nails the desperation and panic a father would experience if placed in such a circumstance. I was surprised to learn that this was Cho’s first leading role in a mainstream film, as he more than shouldered the dramatic heft of the film. This was no easy task considering that David was the only character we spent a significant amount of time with in the story. Through Cho’s moving performance and the clever ways emotional cues are conveyed, such as messages being typed and deleted before being sent or the cursor hesitating over command prompts, I was able to fully empathize with David’s plight.
However, the strict adherence to telling the story through the lens of electronic devices becomes stretched to the limit over the course of the film, and at times it hurts more than helps it. In order to maneuver around this rule and depict certain events, the story goes in some slightly unrealistic directions that ironically strip away the sense of authenticity that this style of storytelling was aiming for.
For example, when confronting a key suspect in relation to his daughter’s disappearance, David takes the time to purchase recording equipment and set it up in the suspect’s home in order to record a confession he hopes to extract. By this point in the story, however, David was growing increasingly unhinged, going as far as physically fighting other suspects, so decisions such as this came across as somewhat unbelievable. More than that, it felt forced as an obvious way for the story to remain within the parameters of being told via an electronic device, which was distracting from the events as they unfolded.
It’s also worth noting that the resolution provided by the story verges on ridiculous and further takes away from a sense of realism. The film did however keep me guessing throughout, which was not an easy feat considering the simplicity of the story in terms of the breadth of characters and locations depicted.
At the end of the day, I don’t mind trading in some believability for a more unpredictable story, as I found myself becoming increasingly riveted as the story arrived at an outcome I don’t think anyone could have anticipated. Overall, Searching is a solidly engrossing thriller that is a good way to close the Summer movie season, especially considering there’s generally not a huge assortment to choose from by this point in the month.
