The Search for John Gissing (2001, Mike Binder)
This has long been one of the nagging black holes in my Rickman education. It was never commercially released on DVD, which annoyed many Alan Rickman fans. After a petition online, Mike Binder and his brother Jack (acting as producer) decided to release it for themselves, and it can now finally be purchased from their website, The Freebird.
The movie tells the story of Matthew Barnes (Mike Binder), an American businessman who has been transferred to his company’s London offices to close an important deal with “the Germans”. However, when he arrives at London’s Heathrow airport along with his wife Linda (Janeane Garofalo), there’s no one there to meet them, their credit cards have been maxed out, and various other things go horribly wrong. Finally, they find out that a man called John Gissing (Rickman) has been screwing them around, since Barnes has been sent to London to replace Gissing. Thus the search for Gissing begins.
What I have come to realise is that while Rickman plays bad guys really well, he truly excels at comedy. Here (as well as in Blow Dry, Dogma, and especially Galaxy Quest), his dry wit and deadpan sarcastic attitude lift the film. He really does have great comedic timing, and it’s only too bad he doesn’t do more of these roles.
The movie is filled with wonderful screwball characters, like Barnes’ brown-nosing boss (Juliet Stevenson), the “crazy, horny, sinning nun” (Sonya Walger) and the slightly neurotic French CEO (Allan Corduner), and they all have wonderful moments throughout. Binder and Garofalo both impress, especially in their marital banter, which is always perfectly timed and thoroughly enjoyable.
This is a small movie, and it’s not widely available (which is a shame), but if you do get a chance to see it I suggest you check it out. It’s a wonderful little gem about corporate sterotypes, greed, revenge, and company politics. The comedy is smart, at times a bit silly, and the movie is never boring.
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