Link to the n*de photos
Prologue: A girl walks across the campus of Lanford College, climbs a lot of stairs, and enters her room, where a guy wearing a mask is waiting. She remember him dying, or killing someone, and screams. So she didn't run away, she was kidnapped?
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Scene 1: A Nuclear Family Dad (Coben movie regular James Nesbitt) complains about his daughter spending all her time doing "TikToks," talks to his son, away at university (played by Adrian Greensmith, who is gay in real life), and gets a text from someone named Dan Divine telling him to go to the park. Are you being blackmailed by a drag queen, buddy?
He goes to a park full of frolicking people, waits on a bench, and looks at some videos of his missing daughter, Paige. A lady wearing a Lanford College jacket is playing the guitar, just like Paige used to. Could it be? Yep -- the guitar has the sticker he gave her, of a smiling bee. Where did she get Paige's guitar? Could it be...
Yep, it's Paige! The "missing daughter" plotline was resolved very quickly.
But when he calls, she runs away. He give chase and grabs her, which doesn't look right to the crowd. A passing hippie (what is this, 1969?) tells him to back off, so Dad beats him to a pulp. Other guys intervene, and Dad is arrested. Looks like aggravated assault.
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Scene 2: In the lockup. We really don't need all of these cringe pictures of Paige frolicking with Dad and her friends, while he sings "Kiss me like there's no tomorrow...I love your eyes." I think this is supposed to display paternal love, but it comes across as extremely creepy.
An Extremely Elegant Lawyer visits. He was filmed, the video has gone viral with the title "Rich Guy Beats Up Homeless Man." He's not going to get a self-defense for repeatedly kicking the guy after he collapsed.
"But he was my runaway daughter's a*hole boyfriend, Aaron." So he wasn't a random hippie -- Dad knew the guy. He was excessively violent because he blames him for Paige's disappearance. Aaron is played by Thomas Flynn, who was in the gay romance Red, White, and Royal Blue.
Back story: Dad last saw Paige six months ago. She came home from college a bedraggled mess, screamed at everyone, then left with Evil Boyfriend Aaron. Are you a reliable narrator?
Scene 3: Extremely Elegant Lawyer got the judge to dismiss the case before it went to trial. Well, Dad is rich. The rich get richer, and the poor get prison. "By the way, my fee is $2 million."
Meanwhile, a Middle Aged Woman gazes intently at a Vegan Lady walking with her dog and toddler. She steals the dog, then calls to say that she found him. "Just give me your address, and I'll drop him off." Weird way to get someone's address. How about the Internet?
They do the retrieval at Vegan Lady's restaurant. Vegan Lady offers her a free meal in gratitude. She picks a table that allows her to gaze creepily at the toddler. So you're a kidnapper? Why not just grab the child?
Phone: A second rich guy, Sebastian Thorpe, asks if she's Elena, the private investigator? He wants help finding his son. Big Reveal: she's not a kidnapper! So what's with the surveillance of the Vegan Lady?
Scene 4: Dad goes home and reads the comments on the viral video. They aren't exactly sympathetic. Mom and the TikTok daughter (who uses a wheelchair, for reasons that I'll bet will become important), get the word and rush home to yell at him for being so stupid -- beating up the Evil Boyfriend in front of hundreds of people with cell phones?Evil Boyfriend's evil backside on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.
Then Dad goes to work, at an elegant glass office, where the staff appears to be entirely female. They support him; in fact, they think that the video makes him attractive. Most Harlan Coben movies have a lot of beefcake, but here it seems to be ladies all the way down.
At his desk, he looks at the reels of his daughter yet again. Do we really need to see them again?
Scene 5: Two detectives investigate a murder scene: it's Aaron, Missing Daughter Paige's Evil Boyfriend! There are two coffee mugs -- he was killed by someone he knew.
"This is how you end up when you live a life with no rules," Pompous Detective Isaac (Alfred Enoch) pontificates. Everybody follows rules, jerk. They're called the norms of your culture or subculture.
When he leaves, one of the investigators (they're all women) comments on how nice he smells. That's cringe too, lady. You don't discuss people's smells.
Scene 6: Dad and Mom at a parents' event at the school. Teachers say that the daughter is doing well, in spite of the recent...um...distraction. The other parents stare angrily. Pompous Detective Isaac and his partner interrogate him about where he was last night, because...gasp...the guy you beat up "in self defense" has been murdered. We already knew that.
Cut to Dad and the Extremely Elegant Lawyer at the police station, being interrogated again. Last night he got home at 6:15, took a run, cooked dinner, and watched tv while his TikTok Daughter was in her room and Mom was at work (pediatric nurse). Pompous Detective finds it very suspicious that he doesn't know the exact time his daughter went to her room. "Normal people know the exact time that their children do everything."
Dad then describes the scene in the park again, finishing up with "If Aaron is dead, that makes me very happy. I hope he suffered." The Detectives don't like that answer -- neither does the Extremely Elegant Lawyer.
Outside the police station, Extremely Elegant Lawyer slams Family Man for saying that he's glad a guy he's suspected of murdering is dead, and he slams her for flirting with the Detective. "Well, he's attractive."
More after the break
Scene 7: PI. Elena Ravenscroft, the one surveilling the Vegan Lady, interviews the Rich Guy who telephoned. His missing son is Henry, 21 years old, missing for six days, the police won't do anything. The day he vanished, Henry sent a text: "Heading down South with a few friends. Back in two weeks." The problem: Henry has vanished before , but he never sends a text. So this is weird.
Also, Henry doesn't like Rich Guy's new wife. "I know what you're thinking," he says. I don't. Did the new wife kill Henry?
PI Elena has pinged and GPS-ed the boy's phone (before getting the job?): it's dead. If his phone is dead, chances are Henry is, too.
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Scene 8: A scuzzy young man (John Pointing) and woman are sitting in a car, discussing whether fate brought them together. A dad and his two kids arrives (both girls, of course); he stays behind to put the car in the garage. "Don't forget, they all have to be done differently," the woman advises. He forces the guy to text his wife with "I'm sorry," then shoots him.
Pointing's frontside and backside on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.
Meanwhile, Dad goes home, apologizes to TikTok Daughter for the police coming to her school, and calls his son Sam at University. He wants to come home, but Dad says stay there. That's suspicious -- why doesn't he want his son home? This is Britain, so it's not like his university is 2,000 miles away.
Scene 9: PI Elena back at the restaurant where she scammed Vegan Lady. She says she likes the food, but the Vegan Lady is suspicious. "Somebody actually likes vegan food? Ridiculous!"
PI Elena calls her associate to discuss missing boy Henry's Instagram page: mostly self-indulgent stuff, but a girl comments: "Can't wait to see you next week!" Her Instagram page is private, but maybe the associate can break in.
Scene 10: Dad and Mom take off their jewelry, say "It's our only option," and walk through the night. Into a horribly run-down building, where they try to break into Evil Boyfriend Aaron's apartment. Darn, I thought this was a flashback, and they killed Aaron. When they say who they are, the manager just lets them in -- a horrible, squalid place.
Manager: "It's not a great life, but Paige was kind. We used to play chess."
More details: Two days before Aaron's murder, Paige passed him on the way to see her drug dealer, Rocco. She needed a fix, so she was in a hurry, but the Manager saw that she had been punched in the face. She hasn't been by since.
So the next step in finding Paige -- interview Rocco.
Scene 10: Rocco's associate listens to their "missing daughter" story, and leads them down graffiti-strewn halls to a basement where Rocco (Marcus Fraser) is playing a video game on a big tv. He's facing away from them. He slowly turns...and it's just another guy. With all that build-up, I expected a big reveal, like it's their son Sam, or the missing boy Henry.
Har-har, a guy smoking from a bong corrects his grammar.
He'll give them the info they want for 10,000 pounds, but then Luther appears with a gun and starts shooting.
Cut to the hit man and woman torching their car, and PI Elena's associate finding out the identity of the "girl" who told missing boy Henry "Can't wait to see you": Paige!
Big Reveal: Back in his dorm room at Uni, Brother Sam has Paige's guitar! The end.
Beefcake: A few cute guys.
Heterosexism: Heterosexual relationships are dark and dangerous. The main emotional bonds here are between parent and child.
Gay Characters: None specified. I got a gay vibe from Drug Dealer Rocco.
Will I Keep Watching: Maybe. Or I can just read one of those "Ending Explained" pages.
Bonus: When I searched for Ben Galvin (top photo), who plays Paige's assailant Doug, I kept getting Noah Galvin, so I posted his d*ck on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.
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