'Missing': Not as chilling as its predecessor

Missing

English (Theatres)

Directors: Nicholas D Johnson, Will Merrick

Cast: Storm Reid, Joaquim de Almeida, Ken Leung, Amy Landecker

Rating: 2.5/5

If you enjoyed the 2018 surprise hit Searching, you may find its sequel, Missing, a bit insipid, and, at times, illogical too. And, if you don’t have the patience or penchant for cyber thrillers, which are almost played out within the screen of a laptop with multiple boxes popping up, it may not only test your brains but your bladder too, given its playtime of almost two hours.

Searching was immersive and genuinely innovative. Given the craze for internet gadgets at that time, it was a big hit among the millennials. Also, the plot of Searching, about a single father desperately seeking help online to find his missing daughter, was easily relatable. The nonstop tension kept the viewers on tenterhooks till the end.

Missing has a strikingly similar plot but with a small twist, this time a teenage daughter is searching for her mother who goes missing while on holiday with her new found love.

As the search gets intense, the plot thickens, but not in the engaging way of its predecessor. Here it is protracted and, more often than not, improbable. 'Missing' carries a few jabs and some effective hooks too, but it lacks the killer punch to leave you floored in the end. Remember the twist in the tail end of Searching?

The film, however, is a top product in terms of technical finesse and acting. Storm Reid, in particular, is touching as the distraught daughter. Her grief and despair are palpable as she appears on the webcam with her fingers furiously flying over the keyboard trying to discover clues about her missing mother in faraway Colombia.

Overall, Missing may not thrill you or chill you as much as Searching did, but it will certainly improve your ability to read an almost endless stream of agonisingly long subtexts, before they disappear from the screen.