Searching (2018) - The Family Stuff!

★★★☆☆

It’s been a real while, as I’ve become pickier about which film to check out, and there isn’t much I want to say here either, even if I do. These days, people can hardly get by without the Internet. And they don’t seem to need to memorize anything while they have Mr. Google all around to help! Is this a good sign or a bad? The film doesn’t have an opinion about that but like I said, every coin has two sides. Technology, like anything else, is nothing good or evil. It all depends how you look at it and make use of it to either benefit or destroy. No matter what, keep in mind that it’s always you, not things outside you!

‘Searching’ is a crime thriller that somehow feels like a melancholy drama. It’s refreshing and intriguing as the whole event is presented via cameras on various devices like computers, smart phones and TVs. It’s fast paced, and has several plot twists that may not be so much of a surprise after all if you’ve seen films like ‘The Unusual Suspect’ where you know ‘the most unlikely is the most likely’, a trick that has been pulled so many times before. But I don’t have a problem with that. The film’s engrossing throughout, and even makes me want to shed a tear at some points. It’ll get you to feel so much more for sure if you hold your family so dear!

What seems to be able to get me is not the investigation or the twists but the family stuff, the father-and-daughter relationship that seems so close yet so distant. It reminds me of the unavoidable loneliness and disappointment as a result of not being able to truly understand each other no matter how we try. In the end, the daughter decides to set a picture of her and her farther as the wallpaper on her computer, indicating an improved relationship, but I know improvement is more or less of a joke. That the so-called happiness is indeed far more far-fetched than you can ever imagine!