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Review: Searching (2018)
This was a good movie. It is a bit of a gimmick-y movie, relying entirely on actions and footage on screens to show the story, but I never thought that it came across difficult to follow or watch.
Spoilers.
Story
The movie followed David as he tried to find his missing daughter Margot. After the police detective, Rosemary Vick, had declared her dead, David discovered some information that didn't add up. It was revealed that Vick was trying to cover up the actual crime, committed by her son. As well, though Vick had discerned that Margot was probably dead due to lack of water, David pointed out that there had been a storm earlier and that his daughter would not have been without water for as long a time as originally thought. The movie ended two years later, showing Margot alive, and now applying to university to study piano, something that she loved.
I thought the way the movie pieced together the evidence was very good. There were several dead ends, but I never felt that any of them was wasted, they still added something to the story. And I never felt that I was overwhelmed and flooded with clues.
Production
As I mentioned, though it was sort of a gimmick to have everything happen through screens, I thought the editing was terrific. All of the technological stuff was not too tedious (e.g. going to search bars, etc.). I felt that the way screentime was split between more natural footage and David's own technological sleuthing was good. Also, it helped that the technology being used was not super old lol. It was older technology than what we would have used in 2018, but not so old that it was unrecognizable.
Most of the acting came from John Cho, and I thought he did a good job. I felt that the child actors were a bit awkward, which is to be expected, but it did sort of pull me out of the movie at times. But it didn't make the movie unwatchable.
Characters
David Kim
David was the single father. He thought that he had a close relationship with his daughter, especially after the death of his wife, but when his daughter disappeared, he realized how much about her he didn't know.
During the investigation, we saw how agitated and paranoid he became. He definitely overreacted in several instances when he tried to confront suspects on his own. On the outside, he looked like he was overreacting, but even in the movie, some people did sympathize with him, because he was clearly upset and afraid.
In the end, it was a combination of his hope and his good sleuthing skills that uncovered his daughter. Not only did he find the clues to connect Vick to the case, but he also remembered that there had been a storm which would have provided his daughter with water.
After the time skip, he had forged a better relationship with his daughter. His brother told him that he never spoke to his daughter about her mother, and that pushed them away. At the end of the movie, we saw that he was now not afraid to do so, and perhaps this was one of the reasons that they were able to close the gap between them again.
Margot Kim
Margot was a 15-year old girl. Through David's investigations, we found that she was a bit of a loner, despite all of the Facebook "friends" she had. She loved piano, but after her mother died, it hurt her to play again because there was unresolved grief, and her father did not help her talk these things through.
Margot had withdrawn money to give to an internet friend whom she thought had a mother with expensive hospital bills. It turns out the internet friend was actually a boy who had a crush on her, who'd fabricated an identity to befriend her. The boy, Robert, had followed her and approached her in the nighttime at a secluded lake, trying to return the money to her. Margot was afraid, understandably so, since a boy she didn't know came into her car in the middle of the night. Robert pushed her into the ravine by accident, and called his mother, Vick, for help.
Margot remained in the ravine for five days. Because there had been a storm during those five days, she was not totally without water for the full five days, and she had been recovered from the ravine after David's insistence.
At the end of the movie, she had regained her love of piano, applying to a university to play piano. She had changed her desktop picture from one of her and her mother to one with her father, implying that she'd now been able to come to terms with her mother's death, and that she had a better relationship with her father.
Rosemary Vick
Rosemary Vick was the police detective on the case. At first, it seemed like Vick was very sympathetic and professional. Her relationship with David took a turn when David had accosted an internet fuckboy and gotten into a fight with him, at which point, Rosemary told him to stop investigating, and that she would take care of it.
It turns out that Vick had volunteered for the case in order to cover up her son's tracks. She did so to control the investigation. Meanwhile, she had also covered up and fabricated evidence to make it seem as though Margot had run away. And now that I think about it, she also gaslit David into thinking that he knew nothing about his daughter.
Vick's plans were derailed when David found Margot's car at the lake, at which point, Vick could no longer go with the "run away from home" story line.
Instead, Vick went to one of the convicts that she knew, and had him take the fall. The convict had recorded a confession and then committed suicide. We don't know how she was able to coerce him to do something like that, but in any case, it seems like she has another death on her hands.
It was implied before in David and Vick's conversations that Vick was fiercely protective of her son, with how she covered up him taking money from the neighbours. So I guess this was supposed to be foreshadowing to show that Vick would really do anything for her son.
Peter Kim
Peter was David's brother. At one point, David suspected him of doing something shady with his daughter, based on their SUPER SHADY text messages. David revealed that he'd been giving her pot, and chatting with her. Admittedly, the texts were way shadier and didn't super fit the context of smoking pot, but I'll allow it lol.
Themes
Internet life
Through the investigation, David thought that he knew nothing about his daughter. He got access to her social media accounts and he saw how she did all of this blogging without him even knowing. And then it got to the part where he saw her depositing money into her bank account and withdrawing it.
Vick tried to assuage David, telling him that it was normal to find out there was another side to your child. However, when Vick spoke to David, she also talked about following non-technological leads, which leads us to the fact that maybe David's intuition wasn't totally wrong. Yes, there were things about his daughter that he didn't know, such as the fact that she liked to chill at Barbosa lake, or that she smoked pot with Peter. But his intuition told him that she wouldn't want to run away.
There are some things about people that you will never really be able to gleam unless you know them in real life. Some things are more subtle, like all of the things that David learned Margot. And some of them are bigger things, like Vick's son Robert fabricating an entire persona.
Sensationalizing a disappearance
After Margot's disappearance made the news, it really felt sick how people were capitalizing on it. Granted, the way the news covered it felt really sensationalist, and I don't know if such a thing would happen in real life, or if it would be decried as distasteful (I hope the latter).
There was a girl, Abby, who invited Margot to her study group. When questioned by David, Abby said that they didn't know each other too well, but when Margot was announced as missing, Abby made a sobbing video about how they were best friends. It was really sick.
We had a radio host talking about his theories about the disappearance. The way that the media works, some of his followers might see his theories as fact and that might be dangerous. Of course there were people suspecting David of having done something, which, if I was David, it would make me so upset, but it seemed during the movie that he was able to ignore such claims, probably because he was so focused on finding evidence.
There was also a young man who'd volunteered for the searches who'd been interviewed, and he was being congratulated for his good work. It did feel kind of icky, not because he was volunteering for the search, but that attention was drawn to him rather than Margot.
The email from the online vigil website was of course very icky and distasteful, and it clearly drew David's ire.
So this movie showed how the publicization of a crime can be capitalized on by so many people in today's world where media can come in so many different types.
Parents
David and Vick were parents who were both very protective of their children.
During Margot's investigation, we saw how David became more and more agitated, to the point that he started a fight with that fuckboy. In the video comments, someone said that they probably would have been just as upset as David had been, showing that while some people ridiculed David for acting out, there were also people sympathizing with him.
As for Rosemary Vick, she crossed every line to protect her son. She fabricated evidence, knowingly stepped into a conflict of interest, and perhaps may have killed a man to stop her son from going to jail. She said that she would do everything for her son, and that he would not survive in jail. From the beginning, it seemed to me that Vick saw her son as "special." I'm not sure what that means, whether he's just a loner, or whether he has other issues that would get him bullied. In any case, I would argue that she isn't necessarily a good mother either. As an officer of the law, I felt that she should teach her son that when one has committed a crime, they must repent, and she clearly did not enforce that to her son.
Overall
This was an interesting movie. I worried that the format would be difficult or too tedious to follow, but I thought the way it was put together was good. As well, I found the story compelling, and I liked that there was a happy ending.
Spoilers.
Story
The movie followed David as he tried to find his missing daughter Margot. After the police detective, Rosemary Vick, had declared her dead, David discovered some information that didn't add up. It was revealed that Vick was trying to cover up the actual crime, committed by her son. As well, though Vick had discerned that Margot was probably dead due to lack of water, David pointed out that there had been a storm earlier and that his daughter would not have been without water for as long a time as originally thought. The movie ended two years later, showing Margot alive, and now applying to university to study piano, something that she loved.
I thought the way the movie pieced together the evidence was very good. There were several dead ends, but I never felt that any of them was wasted, they still added something to the story. And I never felt that I was overwhelmed and flooded with clues.
Production
As I mentioned, though it was sort of a gimmick to have everything happen through screens, I thought the editing was terrific. All of the technological stuff was not too tedious (e.g. going to search bars, etc.). I felt that the way screentime was split between more natural footage and David's own technological sleuthing was good. Also, it helped that the technology being used was not super old lol. It was older technology than what we would have used in 2018, but not so old that it was unrecognizable.
Most of the acting came from John Cho, and I thought he did a good job. I felt that the child actors were a bit awkward, which is to be expected, but it did sort of pull me out of the movie at times. But it didn't make the movie unwatchable.
Characters
David Kim
David was the single father. He thought that he had a close relationship with his daughter, especially after the death of his wife, but when his daughter disappeared, he realized how much about her he didn't know.
During the investigation, we saw how agitated and paranoid he became. He definitely overreacted in several instances when he tried to confront suspects on his own. On the outside, he looked like he was overreacting, but even in the movie, some people did sympathize with him, because he was clearly upset and afraid.
In the end, it was a combination of his hope and his good sleuthing skills that uncovered his daughter. Not only did he find the clues to connect Vick to the case, but he also remembered that there had been a storm which would have provided his daughter with water.
After the time skip, he had forged a better relationship with his daughter. His brother told him that he never spoke to his daughter about her mother, and that pushed them away. At the end of the movie, we saw that he was now not afraid to do so, and perhaps this was one of the reasons that they were able to close the gap between them again.
Margot Kim
Margot was a 15-year old girl. Through David's investigations, we found that she was a bit of a loner, despite all of the Facebook "friends" she had. She loved piano, but after her mother died, it hurt her to play again because there was unresolved grief, and her father did not help her talk these things through.
Margot had withdrawn money to give to an internet friend whom she thought had a mother with expensive hospital bills. It turns out the internet friend was actually a boy who had a crush on her, who'd fabricated an identity to befriend her. The boy, Robert, had followed her and approached her in the nighttime at a secluded lake, trying to return the money to her. Margot was afraid, understandably so, since a boy she didn't know came into her car in the middle of the night. Robert pushed her into the ravine by accident, and called his mother, Vick, for help.
Margot remained in the ravine for five days. Because there had been a storm during those five days, she was not totally without water for the full five days, and she had been recovered from the ravine after David's insistence.
At the end of the movie, she had regained her love of piano, applying to a university to play piano. She had changed her desktop picture from one of her and her mother to one with her father, implying that she'd now been able to come to terms with her mother's death, and that she had a better relationship with her father.
Rosemary Vick
Rosemary Vick was the police detective on the case. At first, it seemed like Vick was very sympathetic and professional. Her relationship with David took a turn when David had accosted an internet fuckboy and gotten into a fight with him, at which point, Rosemary told him to stop investigating, and that she would take care of it.
It turns out that Vick had volunteered for the case in order to cover up her son's tracks. She did so to control the investigation. Meanwhile, she had also covered up and fabricated evidence to make it seem as though Margot had run away. And now that I think about it, she also gaslit David into thinking that he knew nothing about his daughter.
Vick's plans were derailed when David found Margot's car at the lake, at which point, Vick could no longer go with the "run away from home" story line.
Instead, Vick went to one of the convicts that she knew, and had him take the fall. The convict had recorded a confession and then committed suicide. We don't know how she was able to coerce him to do something like that, but in any case, it seems like she has another death on her hands.
It was implied before in David and Vick's conversations that Vick was fiercely protective of her son, with how she covered up him taking money from the neighbours. So I guess this was supposed to be foreshadowing to show that Vick would really do anything for her son.
Peter Kim
Peter was David's brother. At one point, David suspected him of doing something shady with his daughter, based on their SUPER SHADY text messages. David revealed that he'd been giving her pot, and chatting with her. Admittedly, the texts were way shadier and didn't super fit the context of smoking pot, but I'll allow it lol.
Themes
Internet life
Through the investigation, David thought that he knew nothing about his daughter. He got access to her social media accounts and he saw how she did all of this blogging without him even knowing. And then it got to the part where he saw her depositing money into her bank account and withdrawing it.
Vick tried to assuage David, telling him that it was normal to find out there was another side to your child. However, when Vick spoke to David, she also talked about following non-technological leads, which leads us to the fact that maybe David's intuition wasn't totally wrong. Yes, there were things about his daughter that he didn't know, such as the fact that she liked to chill at Barbosa lake, or that she smoked pot with Peter. But his intuition told him that she wouldn't want to run away.
There are some things about people that you will never really be able to gleam unless you know them in real life. Some things are more subtle, like all of the things that David learned Margot. And some of them are bigger things, like Vick's son Robert fabricating an entire persona.
Sensationalizing a disappearance
After Margot's disappearance made the news, it really felt sick how people were capitalizing on it. Granted, the way the news covered it felt really sensationalist, and I don't know if such a thing would happen in real life, or if it would be decried as distasteful (I hope the latter).
There was a girl, Abby, who invited Margot to her study group. When questioned by David, Abby said that they didn't know each other too well, but when Margot was announced as missing, Abby made a sobbing video about how they were best friends. It was really sick.
We had a radio host talking about his theories about the disappearance. The way that the media works, some of his followers might see his theories as fact and that might be dangerous. Of course there were people suspecting David of having done something, which, if I was David, it would make me so upset, but it seemed during the movie that he was able to ignore such claims, probably because he was so focused on finding evidence.
There was also a young man who'd volunteered for the searches who'd been interviewed, and he was being congratulated for his good work. It did feel kind of icky, not because he was volunteering for the search, but that attention was drawn to him rather than Margot.
The email from the online vigil website was of course very icky and distasteful, and it clearly drew David's ire.
So this movie showed how the publicization of a crime can be capitalized on by so many people in today's world where media can come in so many different types.
Parents
David and Vick were parents who were both very protective of their children.
During Margot's investigation, we saw how David became more and more agitated, to the point that he started a fight with that fuckboy. In the video comments, someone said that they probably would have been just as upset as David had been, showing that while some people ridiculed David for acting out, there were also people sympathizing with him.
As for Rosemary Vick, she crossed every line to protect her son. She fabricated evidence, knowingly stepped into a conflict of interest, and perhaps may have killed a man to stop her son from going to jail. She said that she would do everything for her son, and that he would not survive in jail. From the beginning, it seemed to me that Vick saw her son as "special." I'm not sure what that means, whether he's just a loner, or whether he has other issues that would get him bullied. In any case, I would argue that she isn't necessarily a good mother either. As an officer of the law, I felt that she should teach her son that when one has committed a crime, they must repent, and she clearly did not enforce that to her son.
Overall
This was an interesting movie. I worried that the format would be difficult or too tedious to follow, but I thought the way it was put together was good. As well, I found the story compelling, and I liked that there was a happy ending.