Missing is a precautionary tale of the gift and curse of social media and online sharing. The majority of the movie plays out in the digital universe. A young woman (June) searches for her mother (Grace) after she goes missing while on vacation with her boyfriend (Kevin). The film directed and written by Will Merrick and Nicholas D Johnson-the creators of Searching (2018) expands this concept of pairing technology with action and suspense; no worries you do not have to be an internet guru to follow the story.
Missing is an incredible suspense that crosses family drama, social media, online hacking and true crime in a way that totally arrests the viewer for 111mins. The format was great resulting in a lot of “OH NO” and “WOW” and “RUN” from the audience. (I love a vocal an audience) In my opinion the movie doesn’t follow the traditional kidnapping film structure we’re using to seeing like in Taken or more recently Prisoners; so forget everything you’ve watched in the past for this genre and enjoy the twists and turns. The overall message and ending of the movie is very unexpected.
The pace of the movie builds to pivotal moments in the missing person mystery; allowing an organic viewing experience. (I found myself creating a mental white board of clues during the movie) One production element that we cannot ignore is the editing! The editing coupled with the music adds to the intensity of each scene, keeping the audience focused on the film’s goal…reuniting Grace and June.
The diversity of the cast definitely stands out adding a little sauce to the film. Storm Reid and Nia Long are great mother and daughter team but the sleeper performance is Joaquim de Almeida; his character Javier adds to the story in multiple ways that keeps the fluidness of the movie interesting.
Storm Reid is an amazing, humble and beautiful actor that is definitely the future of cinema. The role required her to bring a range of emotions with a lot of dialogue: going from an international detective to a grieving daughter in the same scene sometimes and she nails it.
Check out Missing in theaters.
What did you think of Missing??