January 10, 2011: Barney’s Version
My wife and I read Mordecai Richler’s book Barney’s Version this past fall, so she and I have been looking forward to seeing the film. While the tone of the film didn’t match the book in the way I was expecting, I think it did manage to capture the essence of the character of Barney Panofsky, as he interacts with the people who inhabit his world.
And make no mistake about it, this is Barney’s world. His father (Dustin Hoffman), his friends, his kids, and most of all his three wives, are real people with real desires and for the most part he understands this but ultimately, in Barney’s mind, it’s all there for him. Paul Giamatti gets to bring his usual trademarks of self-deprecating humour and graceless loafing, but here he also infuses it with an innate sense that he’s right and that the world really is better with him in it, which happens to be decidedly against type for Giamatti and a delight to watch. The story of Barney’s Version strikes me as being much more about who the people are than about what happens, with each of Barney’s wives making their own indelible impression on his way of facing the world, even as he goes around not realizing the impact they’ve had. The specifics of why and how this story is being told are wisely de-emphasized in the film, as well as some of the episodes from Barney’s early adulthood, which makes for a reasonably focused film arising from a fairly long book.
I don’t have a whole lot more to say about Barney’s Version, since it defies categorization in the way that good character-based films do. It’s absolutely a comedy, a melodrama and a mystery all at once, as is every person’s life. I think Richler’s intent has been captured here.
Moving examination of an enigmatic guy.
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