MISSING

US, 2023, 111 minutes, Colour.

Storm Reid, Nia Long, Tim Griffin, Ken Leung, Amy Landecker, Megan Suri, Joaquim de Almeida, Daniel Henney,

Directed by Nicholas D.Johnson, Will Merrick.

For audiences who enjoy a thriller with twists, there is much to satisfy as Well Is mystify in Missing.

In the past, it has been helpful for reviewers to make a distinction between “what” is presented and “how” it is presented. This is often useful for assessing moral perspectives of the film and its treatment of contentious issues.

However, it is quite important for this film. The “what” is the thriller plot. The “how” is the style of the storytelling, the focus on IT, the fact that the audience for almost 2 hours, looking at the big cinema screen, is actually looking at computer screens, phone screens, surveillance footage, television news… This means that the action is limited as to what can be brought into the plot to utilise the technology. And, certainly, this it does. Which means that computer-savvy younger audiences might take a lot of this for granted, relishing it, identifying with it, discovering possibilities for their own use and explorations. But it also means that the older demographic, especially those who are less computer literate, may be quite bewildered but also intrigued.

In 2018, two writers, Aneesh Changanty and Sev Ohanian wrote a thriller called Searching, a thriller about an investigation, filming computer and phone screens through the whole film. It was praised for its style. Changanti directed. This time the two have come up with the plot, obviously similar to Searching (and also for their 2020 thriller, Run, a drama about conflict between mother and daughter). However, this time the film has been directed and written by the team of Nicholas D.Johnson and Will Merrick. In their stories, Searching and Missing are more mainstream entertainments than a number of recent horror films who also delve into this IT way of telling tales.

For the less technologically initiated, it is amazing to watch the central character, June (Storm Reid), aged 18, at her computer, seen going to the airport to meet her mother returning from a trip to Colombia, and her not returning, and the audience becoming more involved with her searching, finding the hotel, trying to check out the surveillance footage, hiring an investigator in Colombia, making contact with the embassy, with the FBI, with the police. Her fingers move quickly over her keyboard but also touching her screen, the range of icons, bringing up views of the foreign country, linking into websites, typing English onto her screen and clicking for instant Spanish translation, going into all kinds of websites, bank accounts, using a range of passwords, and finding video data on dating sites.

Which means that there is no lack of action in the film, but we watch it on the variety of screens. Even action within the screen is devised so that there are reflections, angles, so that it is not simply June sitting at her computer.

In fact, initially there are a couple of surprises. Then there is a twist. Then there is another twist. And yet another, keeping the audience puzzled and interested.

Most of us would not like all our films, all our thrillers, to be filmed in this way – we need breathing space and the camera having room to move. However, in its way, Missing is quite successful.

1. The direct title? Audience enjoyment of the abduction plot? Thriller conventions? Plot twists?
2. Start of the film, IT, computer screens, phone screens, surveillance cameras, television news? The audience spending the time watching screens on the big screen? The effect the concentration? The effect of the limits of the screens, action within the screens? The musical score?
3. Computer literacy, the younger generation, June at 18, her expertise, fingers over the keys, the various icons, making connections, bringing up instant translations, international connections, views of international locations, connecting with the police, the FBI? The impact for the younger audiences, identification? For older audiences, mixture of admiration and bewilderment?
4. The introduction to June, her mother and father, the videos, the bond between father and daughter, his bleeding nose, this being clipped from the video archive? The impression for the audience on father and family relationships?
5. 10 years later, June as a typical teenager, reacting against her mother, Junebug, her mother and her demands? Her mother and the relationship with Kevin, the outings, June’s reaction? The decision to go on a trip to Colombia? The relationship between Kevin and the mother, love?
6. The mother not returning, June waiting at the airport, her concern, going online, the details of the online investigation, the advertisements for investigations in Colombia, Jave at eight dollars an hour, talking with him, the commission, the relationship between them, his bike, going to the hotel, searching the shops, finding the lock? The story of his son’s alienation? June and her response, the bad response, later contacting him?
7. Connections with the hotel, language issues, bringing up translations on her screen, issues of surveillance cameras and reusing them, with the FBI, the Embassy in Colombia, the timing, efforts made, investigations, legislation, FBI and Colombia and limitations?
8. The details of going into websites, dating websites, bank accounts, passwords, getting video? The plot developed by the sequences from dating websites?
9. June, her friend, Veena, the help? Tracking down Jimmy, his story about Kevin, the discovery of Kevin’s record, the conman and women, Rachel, her disappearing from her job for two weeks? Then the footage of Kevin and her mother, on the bridge, the proposal? Her going to the vehicle, the abduction, the game?
10. The various twists satisfying thriller fans, the role of the mother and the abduction, engineering, Kevin’s role, then his being shot at the border, the discovery of Rachel returning, her being in the video substituting the mother? The mother still in LA? The friend, contact with her, investigations, June going to her office, her death?
11. The mysterious background of her mother, no records? Then the arrival of her father at the door, she thinking he was long dead? The revelation about his being in prison, the contact with Kevin?
12. The father, his drug background, prison, release, the mother, in hiding, taken, confined, the father taking June? Reunited with her mother? The mother shot, stabbing her husband? 911, the police, ambulance?
13. The unravelling of the truth, the husband seeking mother and daughter for 10 years, his motivations?
14. The resolution, happy ending? And Jave and his son reconciled in Colombia?