This film is based off of a novel of the same name. It tells tells the story, through various flashbacks of Barney Panofsky(Paul Giamatti), a television producer who is not afraid to speak his mind and is just difficult to be around most of the time. "Barney's Version" is his perception of what his life was like, including his three marriages, his relationship with his father (Dustin Hoffman). Overall the story is kind of a downer, just a heads up.The casting was impressive. Paul Giamatti is a great actor. He starts out playing 65 year old Barney and is quite convincing as someone who isn't afraid to voice his opinion and is mainly concerned with himself. Each younger version of the character is just as well acted. He is not a terribly pleasant character, so there really isn't a lot of sympathy for him, but near the end I did feel a little bad for him. He has great chemistry with the three actresses playing his wives. However, all of the relationships were extremely rushed into and basically all happened by coincidence or simply making poor decisions. That aspect of it was a little dumb, but once you get past the disbelief the couples worked well, especially, him and Rosamund Pike, who played Miriam, his favorite wife. Although naturally Barney destroyed that marriage as well. Dustin Hoffman was wonderful as always and I'm glad he chose to star in this, since "Little Fockers" was just a bad idea. Then again, the producers of that movie had to bribe Hoffman to come back, because they knew how horrendous it was going to be. I guess the important thing is he got paid and worked with Barbra Streisand again.
I loved all the flashbacks in this film. It kept things interesting since the narrative was out of sequence. It didn't get confusing though, if that's a concern. The film consists of about three decades of the main characters life, and just about every scene is entertaining, thanks to the talented cast and good script. There are some funny parts, especially lines from Dustin Hoffman and then some really depressing and sad scenes. The mix of emotions was good and the music, although not overpowering would always fit well with the emotions depicted of the screen.
I feel obligated to mention that this film includes a couple scenes of immorality, that I will not go into detail about because I don't feel like getting uncomfortable. This includes infidelity and just really messed up looks at relationships.
Visually I enjoyed this film a lot as well. The sets and on location shooting were all beautiful. There were some shots of New York City and outdoor shots near a house in the woods that is important to the plot. Just about every shot was aesthetically appealing. I won't go into it because it would be kind of hard to visualize I guess.
"Barney's Version" only got one Oscar nomination, for Best Make-up. This is probably because the actors had to age throughout the film. It was done well, but I'm kind of surprised it didn't get nominated for more. It's a well made, highly entertaining film. There are only a limited about a places to fill with nominations, though.
I really enjoyed this movie. The story was a downer, but there were some funny parts and lots of good emotion. The casting also added some enjoyment to the film. At over two hour, I was expecting my ADD to kick in. It didn't at all though, which was nice. The pacing was perfect. 3 1/2 stars out of 4. This is definitely not a movie for the masses though.
-Joseph Sbrilli
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