Barney's Version - Movie Review

As a Paul Giamatti fan, I was looking forward to watching Barney's Version. I first watched it at the theater, when it was released in 2011. Interestingly, Giamatti won a Golden Globe for Best Actor but was somehow left out of a wide field (ten nominations) for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Looking at the competition, he might have made the nominee list had this film been a little bit better.

The title charcter, Barney Panofsky (Giamatti) meets the love of his life at his wedding. Well, actually his second wedding. His first wedding is somewhat of a fiasco, ending in his first wife's suicide immediately after the marriage. Barney has life handed to him on a silver platter, running a start-up production company in Canada which has a long-running evening drama. His uncle has set him up in business and introduces him to wife number two (Minnie Driver). Her wealth makes her insufferable, but her attractive assets make it an easy choice for Barney.

But a funny thing happens at his wedding. Barney falls in love with Miriam (Rosamund Pike). Barney pursues her, and finds his opportunity for a divorce when he catches his needy wife in bed with his best friend and recovering addict, Boogie (Scott Speedman). He starts his new life, creating a fairy tale existence that Archie Bunker would be proud of. He smokes his cigars when he wants, he watches all the hockey he can handle (at his local pub called Grumpy's), the world is his oyster. When Miriam starts to assert her own ambitions, Barney's dream world begins to collapse, which coincides with his own creeping dementia.

I am not a big fan of this story. While it is unique, it lacked something tangible. There was nothing in the story that gripped me or captivated my imagination. It was a sad tale, the characters were interesting and the acting was flawless. But the elements were placed inside an empty vessel. The story itself had little direction, bounced around aimlessly and didn't seem to convey a concrete theme. The result was a somewhat sloppy drama with a molasses pace. I don't know if that is a product of Mordecai Richler's novel, or if it was a problem with the screen adaptation by Michael Konyves. Either way, the writing lacked substance.

I did enjoy the characters, which were animated by an incredible cast. As noted, Giamatti won the Golden Globe for Best Actor for this film. This may have been his best performance yet, although he was awesome in the John Adams series on HBO. Giamatti demonstrated his acting genius in this film, with a quirky engaging performance that transcended the mediocre script. Pike was amazing and brought calm credibility to her role. Minnie Driver was annoyingly fun as the obnoxious second wife, and seemed to really relish the role. This film could not have been cast better.

I am not sure why the MPAA gave this film an R rating. There was one quick sex scene that did not include any nudity. There were some adult themes and talk about sex and pregnancy, but nothing tasteless. There was the typical adult language and another sex scene that had a quick shot of exposed breasts. All of the mature content was contextual. I would probably have given this film a PG-13. The film is painfully slow, which makes the two hour, fourteen minute run time seem an eternity.

Barney's Version was a decent film, but could have been outstanding. The cast was remarkable, the sets and costumes were excellent for the period portions of the film, and the characters were quirky and interesting. All of these good elements were offset by a mediocre script that skipped around and lacked purpose. While there were some decent dramatic moments and some good old fashioned fun, the film just didn't excite me. It ended up feeling too long and ubiquitous. 6.5/10.

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