Monthly Archives: February 2011

Judging from the movie’s trailer, I didn’t really intend to see “Barney’s Version,” about a hard-drinking, cigar-smoking slouch of a television producer who marries three times in life, but since it’s set in Montreal (O Canada!) and stars Paul Giamatti, I wound up going to check it out. I wasn’t disappointed; it’s a small gem of a film and one of Giamatti’s best performances. Some say it doesn’t live up to the 1997 novel it’s based on by Mordecai Richler, but I haven’t read the novel just yet, so I can’t compare the different “versions,” other than to say “Barney’s” an entertaining and moving movie.

Beware though it has more drinking and smoking in it than I’ve seen in a flick in a long, long time. Giamatti’s character, the tubby Barney Panofsky, is rarely without either; he is as unhealthy as he is blunt-speaking but amusing, too. The movie spans his adult life with his clan of artist friends then as he marries crazy wife #1, then obnoxious wife #2, only to fall in love with perfect wife #3 at the previous wedding.

He’s a messy, at times jerky character but not without redeeming qualities. The movie grows poignant especially in the second half as Barney settles down with wife #3, his true love (played by the up-and-coming British actress Rosamund Pike) and has a family. It’s no wonder Giamatti received a Golden Globe for the film, he is amazing in the role. It’s a movie that sort of sneaks up on you (with Dustin Hoffman, too, as the endearing father). By the end, I found it quite touching what happens to Barney, and on the whole enjoyed the Montreal, Canada, aspect of it. The movie’s a pleasing thumbs up.

ps. See Paul Giamatti’s acceptance speech for the award he won for it at the Golden Globes here. Continue reading →

I won’t kid you. I was disappointed in spending two hours watching “Another Year.” I know many critics just loved this character study (I thought I would, too, judging from other reviews), but instead I found it rather dull. I think people in the theater kept politely waiting for something of note to happen but in fact nothing ever did. There was one person who stood up in the theater not too long into it and I heard say I can’t take it anymore and walked out. I’m not sure if there was something in particular the person was talking about or just the entire thing. Little did I know at that early stage they were quite right. At times it felt like grass growing.

But perhaps I’m just not the right person for Mike Leigh films as others seem to be. I plan not to sit through another. Yet I do very much like small indie films but just didn’t find a lot in this film, which is about the year in the life of a middle-aged British married couple. The married couple seem quite happy with each other but are surrounded by friends and family who are unhappy in their love lives or singledom. One of their friends in particular, Mary, who seems to be a sad sort of train wreck, garners a lot of focus of the movie. We see her desperately latch onto the happy couple in a pathetic kind of way to try to ease her misery, but she grows quite annoying to them and to us.

All the actors are quite excellent in their roles. I have no quibbles with them. They paint an intimate portrait of this couple and the people close to them. It’s just that the movie doesn’t seem to go anywhere, nothing really seems to happen. It’s too slow. The married couple at the center are happy, and the single folks around them are sort of sad sacks, a viewpoint that gets a bit tiresome after awhile. For once at the end, I couldn’t wait for all the credits to roll, I didn’t want to spend another moment on “Another Year.” Continue reading →