I found John Gissing.
Oct. 1st, 2005 04:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gmonkey42Get it? Because the movie's called The Search for John Gissing?
Anyway.
Brilliant performance from Rickman but what else is new? It was really a different role for him. He hasn't done a lot of comedies and those he has, he's been more the "straight" character, as in Galaxy Quest and Dogma. Not this one.
He plays a wonderfully devious businessman who's trying to get rid of the guy sent to replace him ("Matt," played by the writer/director Mike Binder, who was there at the screening but I'll get to that in a minute). But what you really want to hear about: lovely, tailored suits for most of the film, uptight-British-business-guy jammies in a couple of scenes, glasses throughout the whole film except for one great scene in which he hasn't got his glasses (because at this point, Matt's onto him and is trying to undermine John as John undermined him) for a big presentation and can barely see. He drives a snazzy little convertible. He hits a golf ball. He does a spit-take (!). He does a little dance. He gets knocked flat on his ass by Janeane Garofalo armed with a door.
My favorite scene... requires a little background explanation. Near the beginning of the film, the Chairman (John's boss' boss) has this fancy chair delivered and goes on about how it was his dad's and it's so priceless. So you know something's going to happen to it. Shortly thereafter, John's sitting in the chair and the boss comes in and tells him off (provoking a very craven, brown-nosing reaction from John). Much later, Matt and John have decided that having the deal go through is to their mutual benefit so they've teamed up and are in the office. Matt is running back and forth talking to John and the bosses. Matt asks him to do something involving the Chariman and John says "OK but first I'm going to piss on his chair," (I'm totally screwing it up; the dialog is better than this in the actual film). And Matt doesn't quite believe what he's heard. Already verging on frantic from everything else that's been going on that morning, he tells John not to piss in the chair. Then Matt's back talking to the bosses. The next scene (get ready for it, here's my favorite) in which Matt goes back to talk to John again, John's at the water cooler, drinking cup after cup of water. He later does actually piss on the chair but I thought the implied act in the earlier scene was actually funnier.
Non-spoilers: I finally know how to pronounce "Gissing": it's a hard 'G.' Not like my name, then.
Mike Binder was there and he did a little Q&A after the film but I couldn't think of any questions. He told a cool story: they were filming a scene where Alan and Janeane are talking to each other and they're doing coverage or whatever so the camera's on Alan and Janeane is off-camera but saying her lines so Alan has something to react to. She kept doing it differently for ever take, crazy stuff like in different accents. Alan (during a break, I guess) pulled Mike aside and asked him what the hell she was doing ("they couldn't just talk to each other" says Mike). Mike went and asked her and she said she was "trying to help him keep it fresh." Mike came back and told Alan and he said (at this point Mike imitates his voice and accent a little) "tell her I went to school for that." Classic.
Before that, he was telling us that Alan came in with pages of notes on every scene and that he was great to work with, very professional. Pretty much what everyone who works with him says. AND there was a picture of a character's mum for a second and Mike said that was actually Alan's mum. If I'd known ahead of time, I would've paid more attention.
Also? I met Andy Dick. He shook hands with me. He was there showing a short film that unfortunately only made it about halfway through before the DVD player ate it but he says we can see it on Moviefone.com (not working too well for me here with my crappy dial-up connection but I'll probably be able to see it at work).
And Eliza Dushku was there, whoever that is.
Anyway.
Brilliant performance from Rickman but what else is new? It was really a different role for him. He hasn't done a lot of comedies and those he has, he's been more the "straight" character, as in Galaxy Quest and Dogma. Not this one.
He plays a wonderfully devious businessman who's trying to get rid of the guy sent to replace him ("Matt," played by the writer/director Mike Binder, who was there at the screening but I'll get to that in a minute). But what you really want to hear about: lovely, tailored suits for most of the film, uptight-British-business-guy jammies in a couple of scenes, glasses throughout the whole film except for one great scene in which he hasn't got his glasses (because at this point, Matt's onto him and is trying to undermine John as John undermined him) for a big presentation and can barely see. He drives a snazzy little convertible. He hits a golf ball. He does a spit-take (!). He does a little dance. He gets knocked flat on his ass by Janeane Garofalo armed with a door.
My favorite scene... requires a little background explanation. Near the beginning of the film, the Chairman (John's boss' boss) has this fancy chair delivered and goes on about how it was his dad's and it's so priceless. So you know something's going to happen to it. Shortly thereafter, John's sitting in the chair and the boss comes in and tells him off (provoking a very craven, brown-nosing reaction from John). Much later, Matt and John have decided that having the deal go through is to their mutual benefit so they've teamed up and are in the office. Matt is running back and forth talking to John and the bosses. Matt asks him to do something involving the Chariman and John says "OK but first I'm going to piss on his chair," (I'm totally screwing it up; the dialog is better than this in the actual film). And Matt doesn't quite believe what he's heard. Already verging on frantic from everything else that's been going on that morning, he tells John not to piss in the chair. Then Matt's back talking to the bosses. The next scene (get ready for it, here's my favorite) in which Matt goes back to talk to John again, John's at the water cooler, drinking cup after cup of water. He later does actually piss on the chair but I thought the implied act in the earlier scene was actually funnier.
Non-spoilers: I finally know how to pronounce "Gissing": it's a hard 'G.' Not like my name, then.
Mike Binder was there and he did a little Q&A after the film but I couldn't think of any questions. He told a cool story: they were filming a scene where Alan and Janeane are talking to each other and they're doing coverage or whatever so the camera's on Alan and Janeane is off-camera but saying her lines so Alan has something to react to. She kept doing it differently for ever take, crazy stuff like in different accents. Alan (during a break, I guess) pulled Mike aside and asked him what the hell she was doing ("they couldn't just talk to each other" says Mike). Mike went and asked her and she said she was "trying to help him keep it fresh." Mike came back and told Alan and he said (at this point Mike imitates his voice and accent a little) "tell her I went to school for that." Classic.
Before that, he was telling us that Alan came in with pages of notes on every scene and that he was great to work with, very professional. Pretty much what everyone who works with him says. AND there was a picture of a character's mum for a second and Mike said that was actually Alan's mum. If I'd known ahead of time, I would've paid more attention.
Also? I met Andy Dick. He shook hands with me. He was there showing a short film that unfortunately only made it about halfway through before the DVD player ate it but he says we can see it on Moviefone.com (not working too well for me here with my crappy dial-up connection but I'll probably be able to see it at work).
And Eliza Dushku was there, whoever that is.
