I just got back from my daughter’s archery tournament and sat down to right this review. I looked up the phrase “too many twists,” and it turns out that the phrase applies to archery. When you put a new string on a bow, you twist it. But, if you twist it too often, it will negatively affect your aim. The bow cannot properly work when there are too many twists in the string.

The same is true of movies. A plot twist or two is a great way to build suspense and subvert expectations, adding to the enjoyment of the film. But too many twists start to feel like a cheat to get the result you want, tells the audience not to trust what they’re seeing, and stretches credulity so far that the movie misses being the effective thriller it could have been. And so it is with Missing. The first plot twist or two immerses you into a reasonably well-crafted mystery. But the movie goes for several twists too many, robbing the movie of the tension it was trying to achieve.

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