VividSimon Simply Perfect

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

HelenMary This has shades of Pippa Lee told from the man's perspective; with the benefit of Rosamund Pike and Paul Giamatti, who are brilliant. Giamatti is a powerhouse of an actor but is playing a similar character to his other roles, which is a little tired... I'd like to see him play something different and to be honest I found it a little unbelievable that he was so successful with women. I don't see it. Sorry. Dustin Hoffman stole the show, and the pacing and back and forth of the film was one of the only things that kept it interesting for me. I didn't feel immersed or invested, just mildly curious, and struggled to remain concentrated. It was almost painful to watch as the characters (except Pike and Hoffman) were all so annoying but it was lifelike and gritty with no bells and whistles. However, the characters were well drawn and the story was cleverly told in told of Direction, Screenplay and execution, and as a example of acting prowess it was great but in terms of "liking" the film, I didn't particularly.

amour88 Barney's Version is a wonderful,well acted movie. Paul Giamatti is amazing in this movie. Barney is a very flawed person. He does stupid things but you can't help but like him. His flaws also make him very realabtle. Rosamund Pike is also very good in this.There is a lot of strong language. These characters all have their ups and downs but so is life and this movie is about one man's life. While the characters do make some bad decisions they also have to deal with the consequences of their actions. One of the best Canadian films I have seen in awhile. The details of Canadian life are there,I'll admit the Habs references brought a smile to my face but they don't distract from the film.

David I like Paul Giamatti as an actor but he seemed a little out of place here. His character, Barney, seems to be some kind of sexaholic and we follow him as he flits uncontrollably from one woman to another to another. Luckily the women are fairly awful people as well so you don't have to feel sorry for them either. As other people have pointed out, it's a hell of a stretch to imagine any of those women being interested in him in reality so that kind of makes the film ridiculous from the get-go. It's clear he's a selfish slave to his compulsions but without any exploration as to why, or any struggle to control it, it seems a pointless meandering around a stranger's love life. I didn't see the point. I felt no real connection with him so when bad things happened to him I simply didn't care - in fact it's one of the rare occasions where I was cheering for the other guys instead. It tries to go all lovey-dovey and sentimental in a couple of places but it doesn't work because we've already witnessed him or his lovers being unconscionable tarts in the rest of the film. There were some good actors, good locations and good elements for a story here but the "story" didn't do it justice. I think they could've used the turn of events towards the end to much better effect to lift the film out of the doldrums, but instead it was wasted. A thoroughly pointless film as far as I'm concerned.

Jin Maruhashi "Barney's Version" takes us on an intensely aching yet ambivalently riveting hike through the frustratingly mismanaged yet inculpably and tirelessly romantic ups and downs that together form part of the dolefully rickety foundations of Barney Panofsky's (brilliantly interpreted by Paul Giamatti) awe-inspiring life. As he initially reminisces about his triad of amorous failures, we witness the not too uncommon lifestyle of an adulterer indifferently cruising through marriages at the blink of an eye. Admittedly the first two are rather devoid of mutual attraction whilst the third and final one throws in the erstwhile absent emotional hook that painfully grapples onto Barney's flesh-torn thoughts forever. Watching a seemingly ideal relationship that constructs a functional new family with Miriam Grant-Panofsky (Rosamund Pike) be torn down again by Barney's improvident actions inevitably inspires great anger and disrespect towards this character. But just as quickly as Barney's wives change, so do these negative feelings as the very conditions of his existence are unexpectedly and drastically tipped upside down as he nears the end of his life. Interestingly enough, this disturbing and thought-provoking twist is most felt by those watching him from the outside or in this case listening to his side of the story. A tragically ingenious detail that makes Barney's view of his life an exclusively mesmerizing and time-frozen complexity as he innocently yet truthfully forgets all else but the ability to love. All in all "Barney's version" amalgamates a myriad of antithetical emotions induced by the dramatic performance of Paul Giamatti and by the contrastingly comedic yet equally enthralling one by Dustin Hoffman and crafts them beautifully into an unforgettably poignant story.