Film Review: Searching
Originally planned as a seven-minute short (by the director’s own admission), former Google executive Aneesh Chaganty has helmed a rather impressive film in his debut feature outing.
The title alludes to a father’s frantic hunt for his missing 16-year-old daughter. It was a happy threesome until David Kim’s (John Cho) wife passes away after a bout with cancer. The teenaged daughter Margot (Michelle La) and dad’s sketchy relationship is the pivot around which first-time feature director Chaganty builds his hour-and-half film.
The director adroitly brings all his technical expertise into play – the film opens with computer snapshots of the daughter’s various conversations and proceeding onto unfurling all possible means of social media: Facebook, Pokemon, G-mail, Skype…, with dad even referring to Tumblr as “What is tumbler?”
David goes to all lengths including cross-examining his daughter’s colleagues until – he thinks of checking her laptop. The second half introduces Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) who’s in charge of the investigations.
The twist in the tale compensates for the over-abundance of computer snapshots. Though John Cho gives an admirable performance, his grief is not palpable throughout.
Though a small budget film, it’s sociologically and technologically relevant, and one which would particularly appeal to computer geeks.
