Barney's Version

Barney’s Version (15) 132 minutes 2011

Is it a comedy or is it a tragedy? Or is it simply depressing? Barney’s Version is based on the book of the same name by Canadian author, Mordecai Richler. The film tells the complex emotional story of Barney Panowski, a Jewish TV producer. Now old, desperately lonely and increasingly forgetful, he reflects on his life from its bohemian beginnings to its ignominious end.

Initially, it’s a life full of hope, full of family and friends. But the mood quickly darkens with the death of a baby and the suicide of his wife. A second marriage follows – an entertaining and surprisingly robust cameo from Minnie Driver – but, betrayed by his best friend Boogie (Scott Speedman), this too is doomed. With the subsequent disappearance of Boogie in rather baffling circumstances, the tone darkens further.

The arrival of Miriam Grant (Rosamund Pike) provides some much needed light relief. She is, without doubt, the love of Barney’s life and at last, he is happy. But Director Richard Lewis dwells only briefly on their idyllic family life choosing instead to focus on Barney’s selfish existence; his sulking at dinner parties, endless hours spent in bars and unforgivably, his failure to support her return to work and attend her inaugural radio show. His sexual betrayal while she visits their son – “it meant nothing to me” he wails in self-pity - is more than she can bear and she moves out and into the arms of her producer of whom Barney is already insanely jealous. Barney is lost; like a child, he is terrified of being alone and calls her number at all hours of the night. With the death of his father and closest friend, Izzy (Dustin Hoffman) and the terrifying onset of Alzheimer’s, the foundations of Barney’s life are truly shaken to the core. Despite Director Lewis’s attempts to lighten the mood - this time with moments of humour - Hoffman for example expires in a brothel, it is too little, too late.

Pike is surprisingly good. In her first meaty role since Die Another Day, she is tender and caring, elegant and self- assured. Hoffman is her equal but less comfortable with humour. Giamatti is the surprise casting; not naturally empathetic, he fails to convince either as friend or as lover.

Verdict
Stay indoors for a nice cheerful evening with Eastenders. 3/10