Review

Review Date: 27-February-11
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Junk

Barney's Version (2010)

The movie Barney's Version does not specify what other versions of the story might exist. It covers the adult lifespan of a nondescript man who is played by Paul Giamatti, which means that he's a sometimes cranky, sometimes pitiable schlub. By the time of his death he managed to amass an ex-wife and two children who were fond of him, but really, who other than Barney would bother to recount his tale? And why would a stranger like you or I want to witness it? The movie doesn't answer this question either. It starts out decently enough and then drags on and on without theme or justification.

Like most people's lives, Barney's contains a plethora of impressions and experiences. Some unfold in awkward jumps of time and only one is examined carefully, so they feel scattered and undeveloped as a whole. As the protagonist moves between Rome and Montreal (he has good taste in hometowns) he encounters friendship, anti-Semitism, the support of his father (Dustin Hoffman), success as a soap opera producer, a lingering accusation of murder, and ultimately, Alzheimer's disease. Most importantly, he enters into three marriages and grapples with incompatibility, inadequacy, and infidelity.

Although his first marriage is a tragic fiasco, the movie itself begins to go wrong with the end of his second. The union is doomed because Barney meets The One, a tough yet delicate beauty (Rosamund Pike), on the very day of his wedding to a brassy rich girl (Minnie Driver). After months of mounting animosity, Barney returns to his lakeside country house to find his wife in bed with his drug-addled best friend (Scott Speedman). The friend disappears immediately after their fight, throwing suspicion on Barney as a killer. This is the lamest element of Barney's Version. Not only does his lifelong persecution by a cop bear no relevance to the rest of the picture, but the abrupt solution to the mystery recalls the vastly superior Magnolia (1999), the recollection of which makes this film appear all the more feeble.

The Alzheimer's aside, the tragedy of Barney's life is that he foolishly loses his one true love. (As unconvincing as it is that he won her in the first place, one must accept that he fits into a long line of TV/movie schlubs who land lovely women.) The movie's parting shot reveals that he will regain her in the afterlife, a consolation prize apparently due him because his name is in the title. I don't know why anyone would feel comforted by this, nor why anyone would regard Barney's Version as a film with insight or artistry worth sharing.

Copyright © 2011 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.