Dir. Richard J Lewis, Canada , 2010, 133 mins
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, Scott Speedman
Review by Dee Pilgrim
Mordecai Richler is one of Canada ‘s most celebrated novelists and Barney’s Version is considered by many to be his best book. It is a richly detailed, warts and all look at the life of one Barney Panofsky (Giamatti), a man who drinks too much, screws up, marries three women and is suspected of murdering his best friend. Barney may think he has an unremarkable life but he actually manages to pack an awful lot of living into it.
The film is split into three main parts, corresponding to his three marriages: the first in Italy (doomed to failure) and the following two back home in Canada . It is while in the process of marrying the second Mrs P, a massively wealthy Jewish Princess in love with her own voice (a lovely comic turn from Driver), that Barney spots Miriam (Pike) and knows nothing will ever be the same again. For Miriam is the one true love of his life and Barney pursues her with single-minded intensity.
Some screen pairings turn out to be marriages made in heaven and Giamatti and Pike play off each other well: she calm and serene, he awkward and klutzy. However, it is the interaction between Giamatti and Hoffman as his brash but loving dad that is the true joy to behold here. The scenes in which they are centre stage together (most notably at Barney’s over the top second wedding) light up the screen. Giamatti is not a flamboyant actor, he simply becomes whoever he is playing and his performance as Barney through all his ups and downs is consistently good.
Don’t let the running time of this movie – almost two and a quarter hours – put you off because it never once drags or loses your attention. However, some episodes are more successful than others, as in the sequence in which Barney, the second Mrs P and his best friend Boogie (Speedman), spend an anything but relaxing weekend at their lakeside cottage, which is packed full of incident and laughs.
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