Searching (3 Stars)

This is a low budget thriller that was very successful when it was released in 2018. It's a film about a father who desperately searches for his missing daughter by hacking into her emails and social media accounts. He's aided by a police detective, but he finds that he's more effective in finding clues than she is.

The gimmick of this film is that it all takes place on computer and smartphone screens. Unlike "Unfriended", it doesn't take place in real time. Another difference to "Unfriended" is that the computer screen doesn't always fill up the whole picture. Sometimes it does, but at other times the picture pans from left to right to highlight different parts of the computer screen.

The story about the missing girl is interesting, and there are several twists and turns, leading to dead ends, before the mystery is finally solved. But it's all about the gimmick. That's what I want to judge, and in my mind it's badly done. There are too many mistakes. In text chats we don't only see the father typing live, we also see the person on the other end typing and correcting himself before he sends the text. That's wrong. It doesn't happen in any text program I know. Sometimes when the father is brooding we see his face as if he's filming himself. That's technically possible, of course, but why would he sit in front of his computer watching himself? The live television broadcasts are shown on a computer screen, again technically possible, but because the father is in the broadcasts, the question is whose computer screen is being shown? Is it some random character who we never see in the film?

These discrepancies spoiled my enjoyment of the film. Obviously the critics disagree, based by their glowing reviews. Maybe they aren't as well acquainted with computers as I am.

Success Rate:  + 83.9

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk

Yes, the information in my Amazon box is correct. The film has never been released in Germany. I bought the film while I was in England last year, based on the reviews, and I didn't watch it until today. I shouldn't take reviews so seriously. That's more wasted money.