AFI PART 3 - "Barney's Version" - Fabulous
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I wrote about the AFI Fest two weeks ago, and said Part 3 would be next. As my previous blog notes, my mother died in between, so I now bring Part 3. Barney's Version is in a few theatres now (maybe only Los Angeles and New York), but keep it on your radar.
Of the five films we saw the week of the AFI Fest film festival, I’d put Barney’s Version as the most surprising—i.e. I was surprised I liked it so much. Directed by Richard J. Lewis (Whale Music), it’s the story of a Jewish Canadian television producer named Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti), whose life we see over 40 years and three marriages. Barney drinks a lot, says the wrong things, can be very critical and loud-mouthed, and gets himself into trouble when he could have avoided things—and yet you can’t help like the guy or at least be fascinated by him. This film is what Casino Jack isn’t.
Based on Mordecai Richler’s 1997 novel, so much happens, I simply enjoyed the ride. Early in the story, a police detective (Mark Addy) who’s been hounding Barney for years explains he’s published a book proving that Barney’s best friend Boogie died at Barney’s hands. Murder. After the detective leaves, we flash back to Barney’s younger and expatriate days in Rome, where we meet Boogie (Scott Speedman) and Barney’s first wife, Claire (Rachelle Lefevre), who Barney married because he got her pregnant. The marriage is doomed.
Licking his wounds back in hometown Montreal, he meets a Jewish American Princess (Minnie Driver), whose family looks down on him and his father, played by Dustin Hoffman. It’s at his second wedding that Barney meets Miriam (Rosamund Pike) and pursues her. It all leads to Boogie’s disappearance and Barney’s role in it.
Barney’s Version, paced perfectly, lets you get lost in story. Its fabulous cast, when in the flashbacks, are supposed to look younger, and they do—the magic of movie-making. I’m hoping Giamatti and Hoffman get Oscar nominations. All three wives are equally superb. In short, this is a film that earns its pathos and humor. See it.
'Love At Absolute Zero' is a gift--and one of the many that continue to emerge from the pen and mind and brilliant trait for finding the humor in life that makes him so genuinely fine a writer.”
—Critic Grady Harp, Top-Ten Amazon reviewer
About Christopher
Christopher Meeks writes short fiction and novels. His book of short stories, The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea earned great reviews including the Los Angeles Times ("poignant and wise") and a blurb in Entertainment Weekly that said, "A...
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I haven't read the book
I haven't read the book, but it was quite popular in Canada when it came out and made Canadian best-seller lists. It's often hard to determine whether books that are popular in Canada are being read in other parts of the English speaking world. I'm always kind of shocked and saddened that no one I ever meet in the UK or the USA has heard of the Jacob Two-Two books, which are my personal favourites of Richler's.
I hadn't heard, either
Adira--
With the major newspapers and magazines giving shrinking coverage to books, it's more difficult to get on the radar as a writer these days, but grass roots is taking place. Now that I'm a fan of Richer's through this movie, I'm going to Amazon today to look for the books you mentioned.
My father was born and raised in Vancouver, so I have some Canadian blood in me. So I should read more Canadian writers. With that said, I'm a huge Margaret Atwood fan, and I'll be teaching her book "Oryx and Crake" in my college composition class in January.