SEARCHING

completely natural and organic way. Fortunately, Cho is up to the task of carrying a film that requires him to authentically emote into a MacBook camera.

That’s not so with his co-star, Debra Messing, who plays Det. Vick, leading the investigation. Whether seated at a desk video chatting with David, or frantically FaceTiming when they discover a new clue, one can feel Messing effortfully acting with a capital A, rather than naturalistically performing the interactions a police detective would have with tech.

It’s a standard missing person story, but the use of technology demonstrates how we’re constantly connected in a way that allows us to be entirely disconnected. Who needs face-to-face time when there’s FaceTime?

What’s bone chilling about “Searching” is how it lays out the way the truth can be right in front of us. We just have to be willing to look, and to see it. The film takes the audience on a wild ride of twists and turns; images and words can be manipulated into multiple competing truths.

But the film does take a few too many turns on its journey. The end feels rushed, outlandish and possibly even reshot, destroying the apparent timeline of the entire film with a few lines, and upending all suspension of disbelief. It’s clearly intended to leave us feeling OK, rather than filled with dread, but it’s a hackneyed and obvious attempt to make the film something that it’s not. For all the ideas and slick execution “Searching” raises, it’s a disappointment that it doesn’t stick to its guns.