New in film: Barney's Version

Details

Starring Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Scott Speedman, and Minnie Driver. Directed by Richard J. Lewis. Written by Michael Konyves. Based on the novel by Mordecai Richler. 132 minutes. Rated R.

Related Content

• Akufen's Marc Leclair Talks Musique Risquée, Horror Inc., and His New Album on Perlon
  April 19, 2012
• Anthony Bourdain's The Layover: Montreal Means Trouble (A Recap)
  December 27, 2011
• Def Leppard Announce Summer Tour with Poison, 1.8 Million People Are Thrilled
  April 13, 2012
• Grimes Announces Visions Spring 2012 Tour With Miami Show at Bardot on March 8
  November 22, 2011
• Monsieur Lazhar: Oscar nominee charts grief as it breaks across a school community
  April 12, 2012

More About

• Mordecai Richler
• Paul Giamatti
• Barney's Version
• Books and Literature
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

The late Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz) was a bellicose practitioner of Jewish fiction in the manner of Philip Roth and Saul Bellow, with a mad helping of Joseph Heller. So it comes as a big letdown that director Richard J. Lewis (who made Whale Music and a whole lot of CSI) has crafted such a mushy pudding out of Richler's 1997 last novel. Barney's Version misses every opportunity for raucous picaresque fun that the book throws its way, while squandering a wealth of transatlantic performing talent by Paul Giamatti. Giamatti mugs away gamely as the titular un-hero, a Montreal producer of schlock television whom we meet adjusting poorly to geezer status and reflecting, with insufficient Richleresque bile and many artless flashbacks, on his magnificently botched life. Regrets, Barney's had a few, leading with the loss of his adored third wife, Miriam (a coolly intelligent Rosamund Pike), and his ambiguous role in the death of a boozy literary mentor (Scott Speedman). Richler was a gleeful provocateur who wrote in funny, excoriating, entertainingly hectic prose and had passion to burn. Somnolently paced and emotionally constricted, Barney's Version never finds a rhythm or a theme to call its own. Worse yet, it strips the novel of its rich sense of place, and so of Richler's profane love for his beloved, bitterly divided Quebec.