Douglas Adams paperbacks and Time Bandits posters – writer-director Martin Gooch likes to put well-thumbed influences to use as onscreen props. But while his 2013 sci-fi comedy, getting a belated release, bubbles with nerdy zeal, it can’t quite bottle the pathos of Terry Gilliam’s irrepressible dreamers. David Jones, played by Gooch, is a fortysomething kidult using a £60,000 lottery win to fund his obsessive search for the brother he believes, to the exasperation of everyone around him, was abducted by aliens as a child. Fondly teasing UFO conspiracy theorists and tabletop-gaming hobbyists, The Search for Simon’s whimsy barrage is admirably detailed – from a fake BBFC certificate to comedy acronyms (British AeroSpace Technology Advanced Research Development Division). But the film waits too long before permitting us any of the painful reality underlying David’s predicament. Without it, there’s little of the dramatic tension driving the grittier end of Gilliam’s oeuvre, such as The Fisher King and Tideland. The gag rate might be high, but accumulatively, like its hero, it becomes infuriating.
