Terrific cast make ‘Barney’s Version’ a delight

Director: Richard J. Lewis

Cast: Paul Giamatti, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, Scott Speedman, Dustin Hoffman

Cert: 15

Canadian writer Mordecai Richler’s novel comes to life thanks to the quite wonderful central performance of Giamatti as the grumpy, hard-living, foulmouthed Barney Panovsky who at the age of 65 looks back over his life and loves.

The several-times divorced former TV producer had a life lived to the full – if not to the fully successful – and we view it in flashbacks … all making for a delightful, if often horrified, journey.

Giamatti is joined by a terrific cast in great form, not least from Pike as Miriam, Barney’s main love, and Hoffman as his off-centre father.

Star Rating: 4/5