"Searching"

This latest thriller continues the trend of all the footage being done as either webcam / Skype or online news reels etc. And rather unusually it all works really well. All too often with this type of film, a protagonist has to come up with some ludicrous reason as to why they armed with a camcorder 24/7, but by using more social media and home made videos, it works, and it is really effective.

In the film we get introduced to David Kim and his Daughter Margot. His relationship with his Daughter strengthened since the passing of David's wife. This is well documented in the use of looking back at home videos etc. Margot is a lovely Daughter, popular at Class, goes to Piano lessons, a real model Child, apart from lacking in doing chores at home.

Then every Parents nightmare arrives, and after an evening out at a study class, Margot does not come home. David contacts her friends but no-one knows where she is. As panic starts to set in, the Police are contacted. David is assigned an officer who is in charge of his Daughters disappearance. In a role departure, we see Debra Messing (Will & Grace) as the Officer charged with finding the missing student. She advises David to try and find out as much information about his Daughter and her friends from her online usage.
The more that David finds out about his Daughter, the more he realises that they were not as close as he first thought.

Ultimately the film belongs to John Cho, especially as we see his desperation to get any information that will reunite him with his missing Daughter. He starts to fall apart as his search seems to get him nowhere.
Debra Messing is also really good as the assigned Officer helping in the search. Nice to see her in a dramatic role.

This is the feature film debut from Director and Co-Writer Annesh Chaganty.And judging by what I have seen with this first film, he has a remarkable future in front of him.
During the trailer, there was one critic comment that said that the film was worthy of Hitchcock. Now that is some bold statement to make, but it is tense, and does have some wonderful OMG moments.

For the style of the film, the tension, and John Cho's great performance.......9 out of 10