Searching (2018) * * * 1/2

Directed by:  Aneesh Chaganty

Starring:  John Cho, Debra Messing, Michelle La, Joseph Lee, Sara Sohn

Searching is an absorbing whodunit told with a style which I feared would be gimmicky and distracting, but ultimately did not detract from the story of a father's intense search for his missing 15-year-old daughter.    Searching's style is revealed in the trailers.    We see all the action through computer technology, whether it's emails, FaceTime, YouTube, online cameras, news footage, etc.    Because Searching works so well as a thriller, we don't mind the occasional suspension of disbelief as the film creates further technological contrivances to catch all the events.

We meet the Kim family through phone camera footage from the birth of Margot (La), the daughter who mysteriously vanishes, to the death of Margot's mother (Sohn).   Margot's father David (Cho) raises his daughter lovingly and gently gets on her case about not taking out the trash.    He thinks he knows everything about his daughter, even how she is coping with her mother's passing from cancer, but once she goes missing, he realizes through his search of her computer that he doesn't know her at all.    Cash he left for Margot to take piano lessons finds its way into a bank account David knew nothing about.    She withdraws $2500.00 on the day of her disappearance.    Is she into drugs?   Is she a runaway?    Or was she abducted?

Detective Rosemary Vick (Messing) is assigned to the case, and calmly explains police procedure in locating missing people to David.    She enlists David's help in contacting her online friends for clues, but David is stunned that Margot isn't really close to any of them.    Despite David's valiant attempts to keep it together, he chides Rosemary for not moving fast enough to find Margot as the hours tick away.    Rosemary assures David she is doing all she can, but this is of little comfort to the increasingly worried David.

Searching plays by the rules of whodunits, including false leads, red herrings, and things not being as they seem.     Co-writer/director Chaganty backfills plot holes with swerves and explanations which follow a certain logic and hold up under scrutiny.    Searching maintains an intense tone throughout; an eerie feeling that things aren't right and don't add up even during the setup scenes which depict the seemingly normal father/daughter relationship between David and Margot.    Despite peeking in on endless web pages, pictures, emails, and offline content, Searching never confuses us.    We know our footing.  

The biggest reason Searching works is how it taps into universal fears of having a loved one vanish and coming to the sinking realization that you didn't know that loved one like you thought you did.    David begins to blame himself for not knowing everything about his daughter, but how can he?    David's only sin is trusting too much and we see that manifest itself in more ways than one.    The intense emotions which underlie the reassuring rhythms of a thriller makes Searching special.    It becomes a study on what people will and won't do in the name of parental love.