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Writer and Director Aneesh Chaganty’s “Searching” poignantly tells the story of human loss through the eyes of all media platforms. It’s striking, distinctly disorienting in its imagery. Yet, “Searching” possesses undeniable power. In “Searching” the unthinkable occurs: Widower David Kim, played by John Cho, discovers that his 16 year-old daughter Margot, played by Michelle La, is missing. David along with assigned Detective Vick, played by Debra Messing, must discern what may have happened to Margot through her Social Media footprint and texts. Concerned David gets that he really doesn’t know his daughter in the aftermath of his wife Pam’s death.
“Searching” opens with the heartfelt eloquence of “Up” or “Arrival”. Margot is born. FaceTime feeds, Tweet, Facebook posts, texts, and computer screen shots mesmerize telling the story of Margot growing up albeit in grainy resolution. Pam, played by beautiful kind Sara Sohn, loves her daughter and David so dearly.
Quietly, Pam loses her battle with lymphoma when Margot is 14 years-old. Although, “Searching” is entirely filmed through the sometime dizzying perspective of multi-media platforms either FaceTime or whatever, it’s profoundly about the human loss; its impact on all of us. We’re all human. We shall all experience loss.
David soon discovers through Margot’s Social Media footprint, that she was this lonely girl, basically without any real friends. However, Margot was close to David’s brother Peter, played by breezy cool Joseph Kim. David’s online research fuels abhorrent suspicion in their confrontation in one of the movie’s electrifying scenes.
In the aftermath, David confesses to Peter that he was waiting for the last couple of years for Margot to come to him and talk about her Mom’s death. Peter with compassion in his eyes tells David, “She wanted you to come to her first…” David gets it. We get it. Our humanity reveals in our shared loss.
Debra Messing is strong conviction as the single Mom Detective Vick, who helps David determine what might have happened to Margot, including the unthinkable. David’s immersion into Margot’s Social Media presence reveals the young girl in desperate isolation, whose only friendships arise as virtual in the platform “Youcast”. David’s path derails in anger. Fortunately Vick is there to reel him in. However, all is not what it seems in “Searching”.
Eloquently composed, Aneesh and Sev Ohamian’s story of “Searching” is about the power of compassion. We can never truly know what goes on inside another. Yet, we can have compassion for them. Or at least recognize when we did not. In this narrative message John Cho is sublime, and fiercely vulnerable.
John authentically captures David as the man who gets that he never allowed himself to experience the loss of the love of his life, yet expected that both he and his daughter would maintain the stiff upper lip and prevail. This might also be the cultural dynamic as well.
Aneesh explicitly tells the story of the Korean American family experiencing tragedy. As Japanese American I get the inherent cultural mandates and constraints. In either Korean or Japanese culture the well of emotions lie just beneath the surface. Instead of suffering and done, suffering sustains in the affect of saving “face”. John and Michelle are so authentic in their portrayal. That I believe gives “Searching” its distinct and unique power. The ending amazes. It shall move.
My friend Cheryl taught me, wabi sabi—Beauty lies in the imperfection. “Searching” isn’t perfect, and that’s its distinct beauty. There is the poignancy in loss that completes us; makes us whole. Wisdom allows that to occur. Wisdom is also having compassion for others, especially the ones we think we know too.
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