Vernon Film Society is showing Barney’s Version at the Towne Theatre on Monday. This is only one week after the last film, not the usual two weeks, due to adjusting the program to avoid Easter later on.
Barney’s Version is based on Mordecai Richler’s Giller Prize winning novel of the same name. It traces the life of Barney over four decades and he is admirably played by a boisterous Paul Giamatti (Sideways).
We first meet him towards the end of his life, in his mid-’60s, a hard drinking Montreal television producer and the founder of a tax-dodging TV company. He is starting to suffer from a failing memory and pining for his third wife Miriam (Rosamund Pike). The film continues with flashbacks to Rome in the ‘70s, where Barney and friends enjoy a somewhat post-hippie life of art and cafe talk. After a disastrous early marriage he returns to Montreal where he lands a “good catch” (Minnie Driver).
One of the liveliest scenes is the sequence covering the wedding reception, where he gets drunk with his good- hearted dad (Dustin Hoffman), tries to watch a Habs game and suddenly falls in love with one of the wedding guests. After a divorce from his second wife (Driver) and a long pursuit, Miriam luckily sees there is more to him than the clownish character he sometimes appears to be and the last third of the movie follows them through the true highs and lows of marriage. His is a gloriously full life, played out on a grand scale and should entertain and move all who see it.
Barney’s Version is showing Monday at 5:15 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. at the Towne Theatre. Tickets available at the Bean scene and the theatre, $7 for all seats.
