A stand-alone sequel to Chaganty’s Searching, Missing takes place entirely within a digital screen. This means that every shot of the actors within the film is seen through a camera within their world, such as webcams and phones. Thus, you gain a technical omniscience that has you jumping between social media sites, surrounded in sticky notes and sliding down search bars.
The story itself follows a newly eighteen-year-old June, played by Storm Reid, who’s mother goes missing on her holiday to Columbia. Home alone, with no explanation, June must communicate with embassy agents, lawyers and charming locals, like the brilliant Javier (Joaquim de Almeida), all through her laptop.
In lots of ways the movie is believable, much of the savvy techniques June uses to uncover tips is achievable, if done a bit quickly, but there are definitely times where you begin to doubt the reality of it. Luckily, well-worked pacing helps keep you on track, preoccupying you suddenly with some new flashy development. In particular, this film has some incredible goose-bump inducing twists that propel the story into an exciting, contorted mess as we go further down the rabbit hole.
a new level of unnerving scrutiny
The movie, though seemingly shackled by its screen restraints, never feels gimmicky. Executed really well, you feel far from trapped and instead quickly acclimatise to this strange new world. The use of a smart watch allows the viewer to travel to different places, and with the background of Javier’s world being a vibrant Columbian city, a sense of journey is still projected.
One of its strengths is the uncanny voyeuristic feel. There’s something slightly eerie but also captivating about looking at the characters through webcams. It is personal and intimate. You feel almost complicit in the world and find yourself scanning and judging every detail of each face more than you normally would. Zoomed in grainy footage of a character in the corner of a room, or a furtive fearful glance away, gains a new level of unnerving scrutiny.
Missing generously scratches that tense thriller itch, with its over the top twists and extremely satisfying scenes of investigative scouring. While there are some elements of unbelievability and painfully silly decisions, they are not overwhelming in number and the solid performances matched with the constant content overload, overshadows them well enough.
