Missing

Grade: B-

18-year-old high school senior June is a master multitasker with her electronics. She is an amazingly fast typist, is almost always online, and seamlessly juggles her Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Venmo, texts, Facetime, Ring doorbell camera footage, and various internet browser windows all on her laptop screen. We see most of the action in director Nick Johnson and Will Merrick’s new movie Missing through these various screens, and it’s perhaps the biggest pleasure of the experience. Have you ever been texting with someone, and the 3 dots appear on the screen to indicate that they’re typing something, then the dots suddenly disappear and nothing gets sent from their end – and you’re left to wonder “what were they writing, and why did they decide not to send it?!?” I think we’ve all been there, and Missing capitalizes on moments like that, and the feelings they bring up.

June’s mother Grace is getting ready to go on a vacation in Colombia with her boyfriend Kevin (the father has been out of the picture). June is all-too excited and impatient to have her gone, so she can throw a big party at the house, and otherwise enjoy the quiet before having to pick them up at LAX when they come back. She waits and waits at the airport, and they don’t show. Back at home, there’s a lot of fun to be had as she demonstrates her neverending resourcefulness on the computer to get to the bottom of this. She uses Street View to scour Colombia, Google Translate to talk to the Colombian hotel’s staff on the phone, and guesses passwords without too much effort – in a reminder that we should make those less obvious than our child’s name, maiden name, or school we went to.

As June, 19-year-old Storm Reid (A Wrinkle in Time) is up to the task of believably carrying the action along. As her mother, Grace, it’s nice to see Nia Long again. She was lovely in Big Momma’s House, and Boiler Room – one of my favorite movies of 2000. Ken Leung (Old, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens) brings just the right combination of approachability and unsettling qualities as the boyfriend Kevin, while making us wonder if he was in on something that may or may not have happened intentionally. Some welcome comic relief comes from a pair of performances: Megan Suri as June’s best friend, and Joaquim de Almeida. I won’t begin to describe how the latter fits into everything, but it’s a comical and sweet subplot.

Most of Missing is a solid delight, but I had to ding it slightly in the final act. All the reveals, discoveries, and surprises pile on and on until it becomes too complicated and twisty, as we struggle to make sense of who did what, and why. There’s a tacky moment in the last scene that isn’t as bad as “it was all a dream,” but almost. Also, you’d think a typical person would be able to recognize their parents when it either is them, or isn’t them. When all is said and done, though, Missing is a decent popcorn flick that holds a certain charm before it unravels, and is better than a few of the so-called award-worthy movies that have been in the conversation this season.

Grade: B-