Last night I watched “Swiped: Hooking up in the Digital Age” showing how millenniums, along with others, are caught up in the Internet and technology. Later in the evening in an episode of “Ballers” there were sections of texts being exchanged. (An aside: television has to learn to fill the screen with a text so it can be read!)

Today I saw the movie “Searchers” which, from beginning to end, takes place on computer screens, smartphones, facetime chats, facebook, google, dozens of hook up sites, vblogs and anything that can be done on the social media sites of a desktop or laptop.

The film opens with montages of David Kim (John Cho) and his wife Pamela (Sara Sohn) happily raising their daughter Margot (various actresses at different ages with Michelle La at the age of 16) until Pamela’s death from cancer. Through FaceTime chat between father and daughter we see they are very close and are adjusting as well as they can.

Margot does have a habit of forgetting her job of taking out the garbage and David, jokingly, affectionately, sends her picture of the overflowing kitchen garbage can and she responds, apologizing, saying that she will take care of it the first thing when she gets home from school.

Margot doesn’t make it home!

Not wanting to give anything away, you know, spoilers, I’ll just say it becomes a mystery with the father going through everything on his daughter’s computer and phone to find her. There are a few red herrings but if you follow it closely and are good at solving mysteries you might get the answer.

Along the way we meet Detective Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) who is leading the investigation and has a teenage child of her own, David’s younger brother Peter (Joseph Lee) who is more laid back than the older brother, along with schoolmates, teachers, chat room friends and people who claim they knew Margot more than they did.

The only deviation from the Internet and cell phone are a few television broadcasts but I was really surprised how easy it is to hack a website that you may think is so safe.

“Searching” is a decent mystery thriller told in a different form which will hold your interest. John Cho is the center of most of the screenshots and holds your attention whether it is showing the feelings for his daughter, his mastery of today’s technology or showing the range of emotions going through him not knowing what happened to his daughter.



Movie trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ro9ebQxEOY