The exciting thriller, “Missing,” is played out in the digital universe, where key strokes of its 18-year-old heroine, June (a competent Storm Reid) spell life or death for the players. Although I’m not a techie, I am using this computer to write my review and produce my NPR shows, It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics. “Missing” makes me aware of how much I owe the technology and how much I have to learn about its possibilities.
June is bereft from losing her mother, Grace (Nia Long), to an apparent abduction in Colombia. June harnesses her skills on the computer to try to piece together her mom’s electronic trail from messages to credit-card purchases. Although the FBI is also doing an internet search, June is just too savvy to wait for their usually-delayed results.
The ensuing plot contains startling revelations and ingenious twists, not the least of which is showing us hitherto unknown uses of Google for quickly getting to the solution. Grace is, like many of us, tentative about tech, at least in contrast with tech-proficient Gen Z daughter, June. The running gag about Grace over-using Siri for any task helps place us closer to the danger of tech ignorance that could land any of us in Grace’s helpless state with a boyfriend whose character exposition is increasingly dodgy—the stuff of suspense.
My co-host for the It’s Movie Time segment on “Missing” claims “Missing” had him “riveted.” He’s an accomplished medical-malpractice attorney used to parsing the facts, which in this thriller are many and challenging. It’s an enjoyable film experience that will hit home more than once and solidly place it and its predecessor, Searching, as paradigms for the tech thriller in our future. (“Missing” directors Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick were on the team for the successful Searching.)
If you want to be amused at how a digital mystery can be as addictive as Jason Bourne, don’t miss “Missing.”
Missing
Director: Nicholas D. Johnson (Searching), Will Merrick (Searching)
Screenplay: Johnson, Merrick
Cast: Storm Reid, Nia Long (The Best Man)
Run Time: 1h 51m
Rating: PG-13
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take out of WCBE 90.5 FM. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com
