The dizzying comic energy and intellectual vigor of Mordecai Richler’s 1997 satire have largely been drained from director Richard J. Lewis’ agreeable but inevitably lesser version of “Barney’s ...

There are three versions to every story, as the old movie mogul used to say. My version, your version -- and the truth. Well, this is "Barney's Version." He could use someone to plead his case, too.

Adapted from Mordecai Richler’s fictional autobiography by Barney Panofsky, “Barney’s Version” tells the life story of a thrice-married Canadian soap opera producer suspected of murdering his best ...

There are three versions to every story, as the old movie mogul used to say. My version, your version — and the truth. Well, this is “Barney’s Version.” He could use someone to plead his case, too. As ...

Like its central character, "Barney's Version" is lumpy, disorganized and simmering with emotions that build to a messy, overflowing boil. Based on a novel by Mordecai Richler, the poet laureate of ...

Making a “life’s journey” film must be difficult. The difficulty shows through the messy Barney’s Version. But despite its rocky structure, this adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s acclaimed novel makes ...

This impeccably cast confessional, with a pitch-perfect Paul Giamatti leading the way, nimbly traverses the four decades in its lead character's eventful life with considerable exuberance, visual ...

The dizzying comic energy and intellectual vigor of Mordecai Richler’s 1997 satire have largely been drained from director Richard J. Lewis’ agreeable but inevitably lesser version of “Barney’s ...

Do you still laugh whenever you remember Paul Giamatti in Sideways, taking Thomas Haden Church aside to hiss the warning, “I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot”? If Giamatti’s particular brand of ...

Stories with jerks as protagonists can be challenging for an audience, but at least you should be able to count on a certain consistency to the jerkiness ... Stories with jerks as protagonists can be ...

Mordecai Richler, who died in 2001, is a very big cheese in Canada. A salty and outspoken Montreal-Jewish novelist who's often compared to Saul Bellow, Richler was the dominant force in Canadian ...

Paul Giamatti, dialing down his trembly-voiced neurotic energy to good effect, gives a holy hell of a performance as Barney Panofsky in Barney’s Version, the Montreal soap opera producer at the center ...