Many issues involving murder tend to focus on how the case is resolved. Who committed this crime? What evidence was found? What really happened? Enjoy the new Netflix Missing Girls, based on a fake investigation of the Robert Kolker story Long Island serial murder, in pursuit of the same questions, but with a different point of view. The purpose is not to find a killer, rather that it emphasizes the ways in which women's stories are often dismissed, and how less healthy people can be given the same consideration and care of the rich. It's a depressing point, but it's almost lost when a movie is killed.
It has been the practice for the past decade to direct movies and TV directors to diversify their projects into intensive green and green. Missing Girls it follows that Ozark/House of Cards optical formula. That different look at least serves as a clear indication that director Liz Garbus, who made the documentary for two decades, and made her storyteller here, is trying a new kind of storytelling, because the film is more of a historical event than a straightforward one.
Mari Gilbert (Amy Ryan) is a single mother who works two jobs to support her daughters Sherre (Don't Leave Trace starring Thomasin McKenzie) and Sarra (Oona Laurence). When her oldest daughter, Shannan, contacted her so much, she failed to show up for dinner, Mari thought nothing of it. But as the days go by, it becomes clear that Shannan is lost. This search led to the discovery of four bodies, and an investigation into the murder case.
Although the evidence is interesting about behavior – many bodies, mysterious calls, disappearance of security – Garbus focuses on the process itself. The investigation is linked to Mari's insistence, as she assures police that her first offspring in the case appear to decline as soon as they discover that Shannan and the other women killed had been sexually active. It also turns out that the police took an hour to answer 911 calls from Shannan, when they arrived just minutes after members of the wealthy community bent over saying Mari was crazy.
Money conflicts are kept inside: The police and the community do not take him seriously because he is a woman, because he came from a bad background, and because his daughter was involved in work with a long history of judgment and discrimination. The realization of how many more women have been killed by a Long Island killer is alarming not only because of the rising death toll, but because of how many more women have died because the people aren't listening, or not caring enough.
Garbus's focus on these major institutional issues helps the film feel meaningless, as the Long Island killer continues to be innocent, barring the casual support of the murder mystery. Barriers faced by Mari are not a thing of the past (the real-life Shakannan Gilbert went missing in 2010), and the reluctance to believe that women's issues remain a major problem as the increasing number of sexual assault and harassment is notified.
Ryan’s performance helps keep the film from feeling too broad, no matter how many stories it covers. Mari is not perfect; or understands that her daughter's work is, frankly, one of the reasons it is not a serious case, she can't help but try to talk her relative away from sex work. Few discoveries about her daughter's history have also come to light as the investigation continues, including that Shannan was helping to finance Mari. Ryan skillfully navigates the fine line between frustration and sadness, as he tries to explain the situation to his surviving daughters. With them, he is more vulnerable than he is to the police.
But that nuance threatens to get lost in the murky photos. Much of the film happens with shadows, sometimes to the point where the action is almost mysterious. Darkness underestimates the power of the action – McKenzie is excellent, as Sherre struggles to understand why Mari keeps the details of Shannan's life a secret to herself and Sarra, but parts of her work are lost as her features are shaded.
Fortunately, Garbus's direction helps keep the visual components of the film compelling. There is no complexity of dead bodies, and they are probably not dead women. Shannen's presence is felt and very abstract; his face is clear in "did you see me?" the posters Mari poses, kept in a happy photo and not as a corpse. It's small details, but it's kind of twisted into the usual murder mystery formula that it does Missing Girls very special. The film is bigger than the deaths of people at its center.
Missing Girls streaming on Netflix now.
