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Barney's Version

Paul Giamatti

Directed by Richard J. Lewis
Rolling Stone: star rating
5 2.5
Community: star rating
5 2.5 0
January 13, 2011

It's an impossible task trying to squeeze Mordecai Richler's sprawling novel about an SOB into one little movie. Sure enough, director Richard J. Lewis and screenwriter Michael Konyves can't do it. But they lucked out with first-rate actors. Golden Globe nominee Paul Giamatti brings passion and ferocious fun to pain-in-the-ass Barney Panofsky, a Canadian TV producer and murder suspect who looks back on his life and three failed marriages through the prism of oncoming Alzheimer's. I'll say no more, except that Rosamund Pike is perfection as Barney's true love, and Dustin Hoffman makes magic as Barney's randy dad. It's acting heaven.

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