Barney's Version (2010)

Barney's Version is a big slice of Paul Giamatti pie, for all those who hoped it would be. 
It's sad it hasn't got more play here or America but then i can see why it's hard to sell- there's no really starry in it and the story is convoluted as shit.
Broadly put, it's about a guy who gets married 3times-first, outta misplaced duty; second time for security and finally, because he's found the love of his life. Now that's all Heartbreak Kid and dandy but it's told in a non-linear fashion and there's a murder mystery too (?!)... As you may have guessed Barney's Version only suffers from one thing- story- it's got way too many plates spinning at the same time. I looked at my watch expecting the film was concluding soon only to realise that only an hour had passed and there was an hour to go. It's got as much as a 4hour mini-series crammed into 2hours. 
I'm not going to say it's too long because this is good stuff but after the first hour, you kinda want a break.
Why? Because it's adapted from a prolific book and this is a common problem with film adaptations of literature. Film-makers seem to think they've got to pack it all in, whether it be for the fans of the book or to do 'justice' to the piece and they don't necessarily. I think there should be a sliding scale- if it's a book you could read in 2-3hours like say
Elmore Leonard's Out Of Sight- fine- adapt everything on the page but when you come too something like Watchmen, that's been slavishly-adapted it's too much for 2-3hours because Watchmen takes longer than that to read. It's a very dense book as is i'd imagine Barney's Version.
Perhaps-unfair-aimed-gripe-at-very-good-film over. It is stocked with great actors doing sterling work delivering great crisp dialogue. Giamatti is really good here in a meaty 3-ages-of-man role. Minnie Driver excels as his jewish-princess middle wife. Dustin Hoffman is incredibly funny in this as Giamatti's father. He's in it quite a bit too- It's no extended cameo. A great surprise about this movie is that it's quite Canadian- set mostly in Montreal, it features some great in-jokes on Canadian culture from silly director cameos. I could tell you why their funny but it wouldn't be funny if i had to explain, would it? Let's just say there are 2bits which would be akin to say, Mike Leigh in a mullet wig directing Footballer's Wives.
I also have issues with the ending and the fact that the comedy doesn't meld with the drama. There are lots of really funny moments but then there'll be cloying scenes of drama too- which is not to say you can't have a comedy drama- i love comedy dramas but here they mix like oil and water.
I'd imagine that this all seems like quite conflicting information.
Is it Giamatti's finest hour? Could be.
Is it worth watching? Yes.
But this would have been killer as a HBO mini-series.


I watched Barney's Version (2010) at the cinema.
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Secret of Kells (2010)...

Owning Mahowny (2003)

Few actors can sell a film to me than Philip Seymour Hoffman.

I'll pretty much watch anything he's in. I think of his last 15movies, i've missed 2. So when i noticed Owning Mahowny on indiemoviesonline.com, it was a great opportunity to catch up with Phil, who taken a bit of a break it would seem in 2009/2010 (probably to make his directorial début Jack Goes Boating.)

I had heard of this movie, where Hoffman plays a bank manager with a gambling addiction but it never was properly distributed in this country, which can be the way it goes sadly...


I think there's a great movie in Owning Mahowny but it's only 10-15mins, not a 100.
Hoffman is utterly believable as a man with a horrific gambling problem. A man never satisfied with a win because it's never. Ever. Enough. Gambling can absolutely be an addiction in the same breadth as heroin,crack or meth- perhaps even more insidious than those because you'd probably never notice a physical change. I don't think Hoffman ever cracks a smile in this film and if he does it's only to keep up appearances to his girlfriend, played by, Minnie Driver. I don't think i've ever seen anyone so unhappy on film, at least never a character, who hasn't experienced direct human loss like Hoffman is doing here. 
BUT this is all well and good for the showreel of Philip Seymour Hoffman but unfortunately this won't make for a feature-length film. Since i knew this was a true story, i knew it wouldn't end well- if it had and Mahowny had recouped his losses, it wouldn't have made the news but in the broad sense, when you have a problem that bad, you won't stop until someone intervenes and people don't intervene when you're winning.


I think an important part of the gambling-genre movie is vicariously enjoying through the protagonist, them buying unattainable shit or living the high life but i'm not blind enough to see that director, Richard Kwietniowski is trying to show that bad gamblers don't care about that. Mahowny doesn't care about girls or having nice things or drugs. To him, gambling is the ultimate drug. There could never be anything as potent to him, as fighting to outsmart the odds. He doesn't even care about what he's betting on, it's just the process. Gambling for the addicted is total foreplay because the high is just before the finish, not after it. So gambling can be truly exhilarating but it's no spectator's sport.
I guess it could be... Like I say, with excesses of girls and living well, but Kwietniowski is so set on showing Mahowny's focus on gambling that he's made no room for anything else.
The girlfriend (Minnie Driver) has nothing to do because of that. I get it; he doesn't care about her but that also means there's no tension when he's in threat of losing her.
So if he's playing with other peoples money, has no emotional ties and gambling's all he cares about, effectively meaning he has nothing to lose- how can you make gambling dramatic if there's nothing at stake?


I watched Owning Mahowny on indiemoviesonline.com, a great resource of free movies.
My 2011 in Movies will return with 127Hours (2010)....