Searching (2018)

[frogzapper]

After his 16-year-old daughter goes missing, a desperate father breaks into her laptop to look for clues to find her.

Starring: John Cho, Debra Messing

 

Anyone see this one yet? I saw it a couple of days ago, going in with modest expectations, and I thought it was really pretty good. I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy seeing another "Unfriended" style movie that takes place mostly on a computer screen, but I think it was used very effectively in this movie. The acting was pretty good all around too.

Yeah, I found certain aspects of the big reveal a bit implausible and troubling, but then again, not being a parent myself I can't really speak to the lengths a parent would go to for their child. I won't spoil anything about it for now until some other comments are posted :').  I did like the way the movie keeps you guessing and wondering about the motivations and involvement of different characters as various tidbits of information are revealed. And I liked the way John Cho's character was presented as a concerned, but flawed parent with realistic and not "over-the-top movie genius" computer skills. There were also a couple of humorous digs thrown in at social media which gave me a chuckle while at the same time reminding me of the things I hate about social media!

Anyway, I'm interested to read other people's comments!

[calliope1975]

I saw it a few days ago, too, and really enjoyed it. I was sucked into the mystery of Margot's disappearance. The ending didn't quite work for me, as it seemed very Lifetime movie dramatique, but I don't know how I would have ended it so I was fine with it.

As soon as they said Margot was in a cliffy, ravine area, I figured she would be okay because, for some reason, I zeroed in on one of the news stories in the background when Cho was searching for news that said a hiker survived being lost for 5 days. But the tension was ratcheted up nicely towards the end. 

I liked how realistic the websites were content wise. As an example, as soon as he searched her disappearance and Reddit popped up with all the conspiracy theories, I was like, nooooo, don't go there, it will only lead to bad things, lol. 

On a shallow note, dude who played Cho's brother was hawt. 

[scarynikki12]

Just got home from the movie and I really liked it.  John Cho is always enough but I thought the story, characters, and format all worked as well.  The ending worked for me because, looking back, there were hints that popped up all over the place: the school mascot is a Catfish, "Hannah" having a story that is an almost identical mirror to Margot's, Vick admitting she covered up for Robert's theft with no mention of punishment, the links on the various sites David checked, the controlled panic in Vick's voice when she asked David if he called the cops, to name just a few. 

And Joseph Lee (Peter Kim) is a total babe.  Glad he's been introduced into my life.

[raven]

9 minutes ago, scarynikki12 said:

And Joseph Lee (Peter Kim) is a total babe. 

Hoo boy!! I went in for John Cho and was very pleasantly surprised by Mr. Lee.  I was so relieved that Peter was only smoking pot with Margot (bad enough, considering her age).   That was hinted at in the beginning, with the jar and David's disapproval of it.

Vick covering up for her son's theft with a laugh made me suspicious of her and I thought it odd that she didn't mention there appeared to be a car following Margot.  We had to know that the ex-con's "confession" was not what it seemed either. 

I really liked this as well; it had a good build up of suspense and enough twists to make the viewer wonder.  For me the biggest consideration was if she were running away would she try to call her dad three times?  At first I was shocked he didn't hear the phone, considering how often they kept in touch, but then at the end when they were showing him sleeping and the phone ringing, I noticed a prescription pill bottle on his table so I figured it was something for sleep.

20 hours ago, calliope1975 said:

I liked how realistic the websites were content wise. As an example, as soon as he searched her disappearance and Reddit popped up with all the conspiracy theories, I was like, nooooo, don't go there, it will only lead to bad things, lol. 

Yep and I noticed that when the story got out and David's reading the e-mails, there are all these "you did it, burn in hell" types mixed with the usual "thoughts and prayers" stuff.  Then of course we had the study partner who didn't know Margot at all and then was weeping about her "best friend" once Margot was trending.

I had fun watching the background stuff going on in social media as David reads through and researches.    I was really on the edge of my seat at the end, saying "no she was without water for two days!!! it rained!!!" LOL

I liked at the end that we see Margot has real messages from friends "see you tomorrow" etc. 

[frogzapper]

6 hours ago, raven said:

I was so relieved that Peter was only smoking pot with Margot (bad enough, considering her age).   That was hinted at in the beginning, with the jar and David's disapproval of it.

Yes! When David first discovered the texts between his brother and Margot, I was like, "oh no no no no no... please don't go there!" but then I remembered the jar of weed in his kitchen and thought, "ah, that must be their connection! whew!" lol!

6 hours ago, raven said:

Vick covering up for her son's theft with a laugh made me suspicious of her and I thought it odd that she didn't mention there appeared to be a car following Margot. 

Good catch! I didn't notice the car following Margot's car the when we first saw the surveillance tape! I had some problems with the reveal of how Vick had been covering up for her son accidentally (?) pushing Margot over the cliff. It was kind of hard for me to believe that a dedicated and decorated detective like her could just a leave a girl to die at the bottom of a ravine to cover up for her son. I mean, I know she thought there was no way that Margot could have survived that fall, but she didn't know for sure! That was troubling. But like I said in my earlier post, maybe I just don't understand the lengths that a mother would go to to protect her son. 

 

On 9/2/2018 at 5:02 PM, calliope1975 said:

I liked how realistic the websites were content wise. As an example, as soon as he searched her disappearance and Reddit popped up with all the conspiracy theories, I was like, nooooo, don't go there, it will only lead to bad things, lol. 

I agree - I thought that was really well done and realistic. It was fun reading the content - I'm sure I missed a lot of things. There were a lot of humorous little moments. One of my favorites was when David went on YouCast not knowing what he was supposed to do, and how he clicked on the start casting button and someone immediately joined his cast then promptly un-joined it after a few seconds of David just staring in puzzlement at the screen, lol!  Wait a sec... was that Fish n Chips who quickly joined then left his cast (thinking that it was Margot) or was it just some other random user?

Edited September 4, 2018 by frogzapper
edited to complete a thought...

[scarynikki12]

It was a random and then fish showed up. 

[SnarkEnthusiast]

On 9/3/2018 at 10:44 PM, frogzapper said:

 It was kind of hard for me to believe that a dedicated and decorated detective like her could just a leave a girl to die at the bottom of a ravine to cover up for her son. I mean, I know she thought there was no way that Margot could have survived that fall, but she didn't know for sure! That was troubling. But like I said in my earlier post, maybe I just don't understand the lengths that a mother would go to to protect her son. 

Never underestimate a mother's ability to dissociate from morality to a terrifying degree when her son is in jeopardy. The only reason the impact fell a bit flat was because Debra Messing's acting is...bad. I totally fell for the molesting uncle, although imo no one would be that cagey about weed when your niece has been missing for days and you're a target of suspicion. Also, I know there's an obvious power dynamic, but what teenage girl would be nervous and excited to be starting a sexual affair with her uncle? Her dad should've been able to guess from the texts and the uncle's GIANT pot jar that he was her dealer.

[nicepebbles]

I really enjoyed this. I wasn't sure how the being in the computer screen was going to go for me. It worked. 

I went in for John Cho and stayed because the story was well done mostly. The suspicious of his brother was a little much for me but upon reflection, David's character isn't in his right mind. And his brother probably figured it wasn't the best time to mention he'd been smoking weed with her. So I guess it makes sense now. 

Maybe I'm a bad mom because I don't know that I would throw my life away for my kid doing something so dumb and weird. She did say he's special. So does that mean he's mentally differently or is that just her excuse and he's fine. I would've made my kid give the money back. As soon as she said that I knew she's been covering up for him his whole life but I didn't think she was involved the disappearance. Should've known. So it makes sense for her to do that since she's been doing it his whole life. 

The whole time I was watching this movie I was like, "My kids are never going on social media."

I really liked the set up to the heart of the movie. It really makes what happens next make sense. My heart broke for David and Margo when David and his brother have their exchange. When the brother is all "she misses her and needs you" and David is all "I thought it would be okay" in other words, he didn't know what he was doing; he was just as lost as Margo. This movie makes the case for grief counseling and monitoring your kids on social media. 

[Silver Raven]

Loved this movie, they threw lots of twists in there.  Enjoyed every minute of it. Did we hear what was wrong with Robert besides his being "special"?

[Stenbeck]

This was awesome.

I was half shaking when the movie ended, because of all the damn twists and turns!: 

 

1. Margot ran away

2. Molester uncle--NOT!

3. Kidnapper has been identified

4. Kidnapper KILLED HIMSELF

5. Debra messing did it!

6. Margot is alive! 

 

I'm very, very glad I'm not a teenager in this day and age. Social media is just too much...which actually makes me scared for when I have kids. 

[krankydoodle]

Just finished watching this and even though the ending had been spoiled for me, I still got caught up in the story. The opening scenes reminded me of Up and did a good job establishing the family and what they lost in Pam.

John Cho was great. The scene where he arrives at the memorial, searches for Vick, and then just stares at her was so well done. I'm glad they had it play out silently instead of with a noisy confrontation.

And I got a good laugh at the reveal that the obnoxious kid commenting on all of Margot's Instagram photos was trying to hide the fact that he went to a Justin Bieber concert the night she went missing.

[Dejana]

So, during an interminable wait for test results (it's all good now!), I figured a tech mystery/thriller would be a good distraction...BAD idea! Incrediblely effective opening sequence, though. I was able to finish the movie later this week and was pleased that it lived up to the hype. The work to make the web look real and lived-in was impressive (often a big failing when movies/TV shows depict the internet) and in looking up how they did it, I stumbled upon this:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/an-alien-invasion-was-happening-in-searching-you-just-1830338767

[tinaw]

I watched this last night. Really enjoyed it. Didnt expect who did it at all. 

I really liked how you saw everything through messages and video. It added a layer of suspense for me. Very good

[aradia22]

I watched this on a plane. It's a very good plane movie. 

I liked John Cho in this but I didn't think it was anything award-worthy. I thought the mystery built nicely without being too cringey about the social media angle (depicting any kind of technology on screen can be tricky and I thought they didn't dumb anything down too much). On the whole it came across like a better than usual Lifetime movie, except if this was Lifetime then it wouldn't be a dad character. I totally didn't see the twist coming and while I appreciated not having a miserable ending, I'm not sure the happy ending was the most believable. But I'll take it. 

I'm not totally sure how I feel about this movie in terms of representation. I think I would have liked it better as a drama if it wasn't so focused on the device of looking through the daughter's social media accounts and the whole thriller/mystery and more focused on relationships. I mean, I think it was totally fine as a mystery but if it wanted to be a successful drama, I needed to care more about the characters. I think the daughter was a bit too much of a prop. Like Taken or Inception or any movie where you can replace the female character with a lamp. I'm sure John Cho's character cared a lot about this lamp. But I didn't see enough of him interacting with the lamp,

Spoiler

especially at the end when it would have made sense to see them having a closer relationship. 

I think they were fine as red herrings and whatnot during the movie but in hindsight, I think there were some dangling threads that didn't add much. Like the obnoxious kid creeping on Margot that David beat up and the outpouring of love on social media when she was pretty friendless. There wasn't any real commentary there so it was just kind of filler. Valid, totally realistic filler. But still filler.