The premise of the film is good: dad uses the digital footprint of his teenage daughter to try and find her when she goes missing.
The execution is ok although the use of computer screen gets a little tiring after a while, and I can't imagine any police investigator using Facetime extensively rather than phone calls, especially from home.
The acting for me is not great. Debra Messing is basically Grace Adler (from Will & Grace) trying to be a cop. John Cho is overacting yet seems to lack real emotions, being either overly calm or overly aggressive, usually not really in keeping with how a real human I imagine would be in these situations. This makes his character a little annoying and difficult to care for.
There are some interesting twists and a sad reference to today's social media fame pursuit and sympathy seeking when people Margot (the teenage daughter) barely knew claim to be her best friend or post "hopes and prayers" on social media for attention as it happens in real life.
While it's not a bad film, there are some aspects that are distracting, mostly the lack of professionalism from the police as a whole. An investigator involving a parent in extensively searching for clues as to his daughter's whereabouts without anyone putting a stop to that nonsense. Yes they would ask for information, but they wouldn't make the dad an unofficial part of the police staff. The daughter's computer would have been taken from the start for a professional to look into. And at the end it looks like one investigator was able to manipulate a whole police force, without any supervision, nobody questioning who and when had searched the area she simply said had been cleared; nobody looking into the alleged murderer and finding the simple link between him and the investigator which may raise suspicions; and worst of all: a guy says he killed the girl, there's no body yet and the police and media are fine declaring she's 100% dead, for sure.
All in all, it's a decent film but felt more like a TV, Sunday afternoon thriller than made for the cinema.
While it's not a bad film, there are some aspects that are distracting, mostly the lack of professionalism from the police as a whole. An investigator involving a parent in extensively searching for clues as to his daughter's whereabouts without anyone putting a stop to that nonsense. Yes they would ask for information, but they wouldn't make the dad an unofficial part of the police staff. The daughter's computer would have been taken from the start for a professional to look into. And at the end it looks like one investigator was able to manipulate a whole police force, without any supervision, nobody questioning who and when had searched the area she simply said had been cleared; nobody looking into the alleged murderer and finding the simple link between him and the investigator which may raise suspicions; and worst of all: a guy says he killed the girl, there's no body yet and the police and media are fine declaring she's 100% dead, for sure.
All in all, it's a decent film but felt more like a TV, Sunday afternoon thriller than made for the cinema.