Missing (2023)

As gimmicks go, Missing has a mildly intriguing one. The mystery-thriller unfolds entirely on screens of computers, cellphones and smartwatches. If you happened to see the 2018 thriller Searching, then you know the shtick: amateur sleuth investigates a mystery through the trappings of the internet, social media and the like. In fact, Searching‘s editors, Nicholas D. Johnson and Will Merrick, are the writing-directing team behind Missing, which is more or less a retread. Think of it as a twist on the “found footage” knockoffs that proliferated in the wake of The Blair Witch Project and the Paranormal Activity franchise. 

Missing opens with smart use of the concept, employing it to convey a lot of exposition at breakneck speed. Our central character, June Allen (Storm Reid), has been raised by single mom Grace (Nia Long) – presumably the film’s target audience has no idea who Gracie Allen was – since June’s father (Tim Griffin) died of cancer 12 years earlier. The mother-daughter relationship is fraught with the tension that comes from, well, mother-daughter relationships. But it looks like both will get a brief respite. Grace and her new boyfriend, Kevin (Ken Leung), leave Los Angeles for a romantic getaway in Cartagena, Colombia, leaving 18-year-old June alone to party hard with friends.

The resulting hangover is the least of June’s worries. When Grace and Kevin don’t make the flight back to LAX, the panicked daughter hops on the web to try locating the couple. It turns out Grace and Kevin checked out of their hotel without taking their belongings. The American embassy in Colombia is of little help. Intrepid June quickly plummets down the rabbit hole of the internet. Before long, she is soliciting help from a Colombian gig worker(Joaquim de Almeida), scrutinizing live webcams and hacking into cellphones with the ease of a seasoned FBI agent. Luckily for June and us, she appears to have really terrific WiFi. 

Entertaining and forgettable in equal measure, the secret to enjoying Missing is not to think too much about the onslaught of twists and revelations or consider how unnecessarily confining the central gimmick is. There is some fun along the way, particularly the picture’s winking nods to our tech-addled times. Just try not to check your phone every time June hears a ringtone … as I did.