ALARIS' REVIEWS

10th July 2009
The Search for John Gissing (2001)

This isn't a great movie. To be honest, it feels like a crasser remake of a much cleverer British film. After I finished watching it, I quite liked the idea behind it, which only made the execution even more disappointing in hindsight.

Matthew Barnes (Mike Binder) is an American executive, freshly transferred to London to seal the corporate merger of a lifetime. However, from the moment he and his disenchanted wife, Linda (Janeane Garofalo), hit the tarmac, things begin to go incomprehensibly wrong. Soon, they suspect that Barnes' London counterpart, the mysterious and elusive John Gissing (Alan Rickman), is somehow involved.

I won't go into detail about what could have been done better in The Search For John Gissing, because I didn't hate the film, and I don't need to write a forty page list. Basically, it's a bit too loud, too obvious, and too repetitive - much like Barnes himself. He's really quite an ass.

However, I will mention the stuff I liked, because there are quite a few pleasantly familiar faces. Rickman is great as John Gissing, playing the kind of Englishman the Yanks love to hate - arch, devious, and ever so articulate. Garofalo's Linda is the kind of character she often plays, and I often enjoy watching - straight-shooting and intelligent, mixing bravado with vulnerability. Rickman's long time friend Juliet Stevenson (Truly, Madly, Deeply, 1990) also makes a nice appearance as a crisp senior executive. I have to make a special mention of Sonya Walger (Penny from Lost, 2006), who is absolutely luminous as a suspicious nun.

I can only hope that the British remake this film, and make it sharper, wittier, and punchier.

Verdict: A clash of cultures comedy drama with some good ideas, but lumpy and annoying execution.