Barney's Version (2011)
Average Rating: 6.7/10
Reviews Counted: 131
Fresh: 105 | Rotten: 26
With a magnificent performance by Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version offers much comedy and insight to the complexities of modern romance.
Average Rating: 7/10
Critic Reviews: 31
Fresh: 25 | Rotten: 6
With a magnificent performance by Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version offers much comedy and insight to the complexities of modern romance.
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Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 17,555
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Movie Info
This seriocomic adaptation of Mordecai Richler's award-winning 1997 novel stars Paul Giamatti as Barney Panofsky, who meets the great love of his life, Miriam (Rosamund Pike), at the most inopportune time imaginable: his marriage to his second wife (Minnie Driver), a wealthy Jewish princess and compulsive shopper. Narrated by Barney as a confessional, the film covers 30 years of his unusual journey -- from his first marriage to the chronically unfaithful free spirit Clara (Rachelle Lefevre) and
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Cast
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Paul Giamatti
Barney Panofsky -
Dustin Hoffman
Izzy Panofsky -
Rosamund Pike
Miriam Grant-Panofsky -
Minnie Driver
2nd Mrs. P. -
Rachelle Lefevre
Clara -
Scott Speedman
Boogie -
Bruce Greenwood
Blair -
Macha Grenon
Solange -
Anna Hopkins
Kate Panofsky -
Jake Hoffman
Michael Panofsky -
Mark Addy
Det. O'Hearne -
Saul Rubinek
Charnofsky -
Thomas Trabacchi
Leo -
Clé Bennett
Cedric -
Harvey Atkin
2nd Mrs. P's Father -
Massimo Wertmuller
Rome Doctor -
Howard Jerome
Uncle Irv -
Linda Sorensen
2nd Mrs. P's Mother
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Barney's Version Trailer & Photos
All Critics (131) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (106) | Rotten (26) | DVD (2)
The movie, much like your own life, is best enjoyed when you don't know exactly what happens next.
Top CriticSometimes, when a movie emerges from a book, a crucial ingredient gets left out along the way. In the case of "Barney's Version," it's the wit.
Highly entertaining and arguably the most satisfying Richler screen adaptation to date.
This has the overstuffed feel of a sprawling, life-spanning story that's been wrestled down to feature length.
The parts are greater than the whole in "Barney's Version," a rambling look at a shambling man's adventures in love.
Paul Giamatti can do spunky (Cinderella Man) and stately (John Adams), but he's at his best turning potentially loathsome men into sympathetic characters that command your attention.
Messy, melodramatic and meandering, just like life.
Giamatti and Hoffman are so much fun, and they are tied to a narrative that, while slightly overambitious, never flags
It's Giamatti's performance that makes the film work because Barney is not an easy man to like.
Director Richard J. Lewis never quite gets a handle on the sprawling storyline and stumbles over the tonal shifts... but Giamatti holds the center together.
A minor improvement over Mordecai Richler's nigh unreadable book...
Paul Giamatti is one of those actors whose presence in a movie generally validates it, and Barney's Version is no exception. He manages to make a central character with few-if any-admirable traits not only bearable but downright compelling. And...
An initially engrossing but progressively rambling and schmaltzy film that's mostly saved by a set of fine, if not exceptional performances.
Barney's Version starts fumblingly in picaresque mode, and only really hits its narrative and emotional stride in its second half.
Giammatti is on the top of his game in this Pitch black comedy.
If there's such a thing as a filmmaker treating its subject matter too affectionately, then this is that, and it makes you wonder why you should even keep watching.
The ever-impressive Paul Giamatti (American Splendour, John Adams) shines in this rambling Canadian character study.
Mordecai Richler's 1997 acclaimed best seller novel is never fleshed out.
It takes a little while to warm up but Barney's Version is a charming film that will leave you reflecting on your own life.
True love and fine cigars feature in the charming Barney's Version, a blend of intelligent comedy and stirring drama headlined by a career best Paul Giamatti.
[The] character has given Giamatti another great role after Sideways and Harvey Pekar and he runs with it; no wonder he won a Golden Globe for this.
If Giamatti's performance is rigorously unsentimental, director Richard Lewis and writer Michael Konyves (adapting Morechai Richler's novel) succumb, a little too often, to slow-moving warmth and wryness.
The film offers a lovely mix of compassion and humour. We get a sprawling comic tableau, the arc of a full life.
Just like a really good novel, it gets you so well acquainted with its characters that they start to feel like your friends, and you don't want it to finish because that will mean never seeing them again.
Audience Reviews for Barney's Version
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Barney Panofsky: Watch your mouth. I am still your father.
- Michael Panofsky: Yeah, I know. There's nothing I can do about that.
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- Miriam Grant-Panofsky: If you can't at least be civil to my friends, don't join us.
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- Clara: Barney, you really do wear your heart on your sleeve. Now put it away. It's disgusting to look at.
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- Barney Panofsky: You look like a king, a fucking king.
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- Izzy Panofsky: "He had a hard on the size of a can of hair spray"
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- Clara: Well, I thought it was yours.
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Latest News on Barney's Version
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January 13, 2011:
Rosamund Pike Barney's Version InterviewFormer Bond Girl Rosamund Pike discussed her new film, the Paul Giamatti-led drama "Barney's...
November 29, 2010:
Barney's Version: A Novelist's Self-Portrait, Distilled On ScreenAfter trying for 10 years, producer Robert Lantos has finally pulled together a film adaptation of...
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Foreign Titles
- Barney`s Version (DE)
- Le monde de Barney (FR)
