Wick's Review

Summary - Very Good 3.5

I find self-loathing shmucks more annoying than interesting. So Barney’s Version – about a dissolute TV exec played by the redoubtable Paul Giamatti – surprised me by deepening into an affecting and intriguing drama in its third reel. Based on Mordecai Richler’s final novel, its literary pedigree pays off in the end.

The movie covers the whole of Barney Panofsky’s adult life, from his youthful frolicking in Rome, through his three marriages, fatherhood, inordinately successful TV production career, and ultimately to his demise. Acerbic and alcoholic, he succeeds more than seems justified. The movie implicitly challenges the fairness of life, first by granting Barney so much, then by taking it away.

That last – seeing life taken away from the living – animates the latter part of the movie, elevating it. So as not to spoil the plot, I’m being purposefully vague, but can say that those who have dealt with love and loss will be favorably touched by Barney’s Version in the end.

Acting - Very Good 3.5

Paul Giamatti nearly overacts – as he often does – in rendering a man more defined by his appetites than his character. It’s a solid performance, around which the somewhat sprawling story revolves.

Dustin Hoffman joins him in near-overacting, the elder legend playing Giamatti’s earthy father, a retired “Jew cop.” Still, Hoffman’s always worth watching.

The actresses playing Giamatti’s three wives are bad, good and very good.

• Rachelle Lefevre is unpersuasive as the first Mrs. P.
• Minnie Driver is suitably attractive and shrill as the second Mrs. P.
• Rosamund Pike is gorgeous and gracious as the third Mrs. P.

Two other members of the large supporting cast stand out:

• Scott Speedman as Barney’s addled buddy Boogie.
• Bruce Greenwood as a smooth competitor for the affections of the third Mrs. P.

Film - Very Good 3.5

Mordecai Richler, the late Canadian-Jewish author from whose final novel the screenplay is taken, knows from self-loathing shmucks. His unsympathetic portrait of the Montreal Jewish community reeks a bit, yet gives way to a surprisingly affecting story. In short, the film packs the punch of a quality novel.

Edge - Risqué 1.9

Rude, unhappy people populate the movie.

On the sex front, one scene is particularly lovely: the ultra-fetching Rosamund Pike luring her husband into bed by twitching her lingerie-clad buttocks. Hollywood’s been very, very good to shlumpy Paul Giamatti that he gets to play such a scene with a world class beauty like Pike.

Reality - Glib 1.6

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