Gives Paul Giamatti his most memorable part since Sideways

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 31, 2021

The film never coalesces, and despite the positive bits, the story is simply too long, too rambling, and too obvious to be completely successful.

| Original Score: C+ | Jul 13, 2020

If I was Barney, I would want to forget this movie too.

| Original Score: 1.8/5 | Nov 6, 2019

[T]he tone is light and the all-star cast play their parts to perfection.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 23, 2019

Michael Konyves' screenplay is all too conventional in its episodic structure and fluctuating emotional tone. Without any peaks of laugh-out-loud hilarity, you end up counting the seconds until the next quiet, serious conversation.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 6, 2018

Watching Barney search for happiness in the most graceless ways is uncomfortable at times, but his sincere personality peers through enough from behind his callous exterior to inspire sympathy for him without dismissing his countless flaws.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 29, 2018

Giamatti and Hoffman are so much fun, and they are tied to a narrative that, while slightly overambitious, never flags

| Original Score: 71/100 | Aug 16, 2011

It's Giamatti's performance that makes the film work because Barney is not an easy man to like.

| Aug 16, 2011

Director Richard J. Lewis never quite gets a handle on the sprawling storyline and stumbles over the tonal shifts... but Giamatti holds the center together.

| Jul 1, 2011

A minor improvement over Mordecai Richler's nigh unreadable book...

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jul 1, 2011

Paul Giamatti is one of those actors whose presence in a movie generally validates it, and Barney's Version is no exception. He manages to make a central character with few-if any-admirable traits not only bearable but downright compelling. And...

Full Review | Jun 29, 2011

An initially engrossing but progressively rambling and schmaltzy film that's mostly saved by a set of fine, if not exceptional performances.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 21, 2011

Barney's Version starts fumblingly in picaresque mode, and only really hits its narrative and emotional stride in its second half.

| Apr 22, 2011

Giammatti is on the top of his game in this Pitch black comedy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 13, 2011

If there's such a thing as a filmmaker treating its subject matter too affectionately, then this is that, and it makes you wonder why you should even keep watching.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 4, 2011

The ever-impressive Paul Giamatti (American Splendour, John Adams) shines in this rambling Canadian character study.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 31, 2011

Mordecai Richler's 1997 acclaimed best seller novel is never fleshed out.

| Original Score: C | Mar 27, 2011

It takes a little while to warm up but Barney's Version is a charming film that will leave you reflecting on your own life.

| Original Score: B+ | Mar 24, 2011

[The] character has given Giamatti another great role after Sideways and Harvey Pekar and he runs with it; no wonder he won a Golden Globe for this.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 23, 2011

If Giamatti's performance is rigorously unsentimental, director Richard Lewis and writer Michael Konyves (adapting Morechai Richler's novel) succumb, a little too often, to slow-moving warmth and wryness.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 23, 2011