Barney’s Version is hard to define. A bittersweet comedy-drama cum murder-mystery. Uproariously funny yet tragic, compelling yet repelling, it’s a beautiful and rewarding compendium. Barney’s uneven life is played out from his 1970s misspent youth in Europe to an old age beset with memories of three marriages and a missing friend.
Barney Panofsky is a cigar-smoking, egocentric womaniser. Fickle and foul-mouthed, he’s not exactly God’s gift. But somehow over forty years, from his twenties to his sixties, he gets what he wants. And sometimes what he deserves.
Meeting the love of his life during his own wedding reception, and taking off after her, is just the latest and most extravagant of Barney’s selfish whims. But fulfilment isn’t so easily won. And with a father who’s as wayward as his son, the course of Barney’s life is never going to run smoothly.
Paul Giamatti (Sideways) is fantastic as the irascible Barney. But it’s Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day, Pride & Prejudice) who steals the film and gives it a much-needed soul and moral compass. A foil for Barney’s obsessive dreams of love and satisfaction, Pike gives a nuanced performance with a beating heart and steely strength.
Add Dustin Hoffman as Barney’s retired-cop dad, and Minnie Driver as his second wife, and the scintillating cast mines each seam of comedy and drama. Laugh out loud moments elide into scenes of squirmy heartbreak. A cornucopia of characterisations, the film zings with class and cut-glass emotion.
Based on Mordecai Richler’s novel, Barney’s Version can be hard to take. Barney’s unlikeable traits stem from the book’s unreliable first person narrative, making it an uncomfortable watch. Is Barney telling the truth, misremembering or making it up? All is revealed in a finale that’s as inevitable as it is unexpected.
Barney’s Version constantly surprises. Having been a Sideways-esque romcom, it morphs into a piquant, Don Quixote meditation on dreams and desire. Before veering off into murder mystery territory and a comeuppance that’s both heartfelt and realistic.
All of life is here. And that’s the point. It’s Barney’s version of his life. Come looking for the comedy – which the trailer snidely sells you – and the first act is for you. Stay for the second and third acts and you’re into more mature territory. Like someone growing up, different in middle age from their twentysomething self.
Barney’s Version is a richly engaging tragi-comedy that’s easy to like, hard to love and difficult to forget. You may sneer at the male-fantasy of an unlovely man copping off with a series of beautiful women. It’d be laughed at staged the other way round. But dream casting keeps it painful, funny and true.
See it if you liked Sideways¸ He’s Just Not That Into You and other knife-edge romantic comedies. But expect darker clouds than those films brought. Bask in Giamatti’s ability to keep you watching. Smirk at Hoffman’s outrageous one-liners. But most of all, wonder at Rosamund Pike’s luminous, seamless performance.
