When I saw the trailers for Missing, I couldn’t decide what to think of it. On one hand, it looked like a Netflix or Shudder original movie rather than a theatrical movie. On the other hand, it seemed like an interesting premise. Since I had some time, I decided to check it out.

Grace (Nia Long) and her boyfriend, Kevin (Ken Leung), are going on vacation to Colombia. June (Storm Reid), Grace’s 18-year old daughter, is staying by herself in Los Angeles. However, when June goes to the airport to pick them up after their trip, neither Grace nor Kevin can be found. When the police and FBI take their time investigating the case, June turns to the internet to find her mom by herself.

I will say that Missing did keep my attention through the entire 2-hour runtime. The various twists and turns in the case were both intriguing and fairly realistic. I can believe that June would run into all sorts of red tape while dealing with detectives. And June was extremely innovative using internet tools like TaskRabbit (well, the Colombian equivalent) and live feed cams to try to track her mom’s movements in another country. I don’t know that I would have done as well as she did.

With that in mind, I’m not sure this is worthy of a theatrical release. The whole movie was supposed to feel close and personal, which is lost when you’re sitting in front of a huge screen with other people. I think it might have felt a little more targeted if it was a streaming release. Especially with the twist ending. Missing deserves to feel personal. And I feel like I lost that in a theater setting.

Despite wanting a more personal feeling as I watched the movie, I would give this a 4 out of 5 stars if I rated movies. (Should I give movie ratings?) It was really good and I didn’t predict the twist, which I usually do. I would probably watch it again to see if there was anything I missed during my first watch.