Aspect Ratio: 1.85 widescreen
Colour: Colour
Sound: Stereo
Camera: various
Tech Notes: Camera : various. Stereo
Synopsis
David Kim's (John Cho) 16yo daughter Margot (Michelle La) goes missing. Her mother died of cancer 2 year prior and David is a sole parent. The story is largely told through interactions with computers - video calls, social media, messaging.
The police officer assigned to the case, Rosemary Vick (Debra Messing) is sympathetic but the leads David find on Margot's laptop seem to go nowhere and Detective Vick declares it must be a case of a runaway as Margot has withdrawn all her savings (she hasn't told dad that she has given up on piano lessons which he still gives her cash for) before disappearing.
David then finds a clue that she may have gone to a local lake beauty spot and Det.Vick agrees to search the lack and finds Margot's car but no trace of the missing teen aside from some blood on the dashboard.
As David confronts his brother whom he now suspects of involvement Det.Vick gets a confession from a convicted murderer and closes the case - but it doesn't end there as something doesn't add up for David...
Reviews
by rogerco on Sat 9th Apr 2022 DVD proj @ home
Found on a computer screen
Summary
Quite good thriller plot with novel way of telling the storyFull review
The most notable thing about the film is the novel way of telling the story through the medium (largely) of computer screen shots. This relies of the father making extensive use of video calls (this was filmed pre-covid and the ubiquitous use of Zoom) - and even the outdoor live action footage is largely shown as captured on phone cameras or by broadcast news reports on a computer screen. It also relies on the daughter having been an extensive user of social media which dad gets access to via her laptop and happening to know a password for one of her email accounts so he can reset passwords on Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr etc.
On the whole the technique works well once it has set our expectations but I'm not sure it wouldn't start to interfere with the story if it was done again. On the other hand it is often said that the existence of mobile phones have made conventional thriller plots far harder to construct and this is one way around that problem. (The TV series Casa del Papel - Money Heist - also managed it quite well, embedding the use and abuse of technology into the core plotlines)
The plot itself is a fairly straightforward thriller/missing person mystery well executed. The twists are subtly telegraphed beforehand so the viewer can have the satisfaction of thinking "I though something like that was happening" after each is revealed.
On the whole an enjoyable movie. We watched it on a 5ft home projection screen - it might be a bit overwhelming on a large cinema screen - and sitting on a sofa where we normally spend far too much time with a laptop so it seemed quite normal.