7/10
funny
20 August 2014
"The Search for John Gissing" is a 2001 comedy starring Mike Binder, Janeane Garofalo, and Alan Rickman.

Matthew Barnes and his wife Linda come to London, where Matthew is going to oversee a merger of a British company with the Germans. The man who has rented a house for them and is going to pick them up at the airport is one John Gissing (Rickman) who doesn't show up at the airport. They reach him, and he apologizes, and sends them to a hotel where he has a room reserved for them. The room turns out to be for someone else, and the Barnes' can't get a room because Gissing maxed out their credit cards when he rented them a house. The couple winds up staying with a nun who, while Linda is in the shower, makes a pass at Matthew.

It doesn't take Barnes long to figure out that John Gissing is out to destroy him. It turns out that Gissing was passed over for this assignment and feels threatened. Barnes turns the tables on him.

Lots of this film is very funny, with a crackerjack performance by Rickman, who is hilarious. Mike Binder is possibly a devotee of Woody Allen - this is Binder's film, and it's not dissimilar to an Allen film, nor are his line readings. Janeane Garofalo as his discouraged wife is very good.

This film didn't get a general release, apparently. It's hard to understand why since it is at least a cut above some of the dreck that passes for comedy today. I suspect if Ben Stiller had made it, the film wouldn't have had that problem.
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