Movie: Barney’s Version
This week’s movie is one of those under-hyped ones so the people I mention it to have never heard of it. Have you?Barney (Paul Giamatti) is not quite the serial husband that the description depicted but is on his third marriage by the time the movie moves into 4th gear. Barney’s first is when in Rome he is young and naive enough to think he should marry the girl who says she is carrying his child. He is devastated when the child is still-born but that relationship ended when it was evident the baby was not his.His father (Dustin Hoffman) introduces him to his well-to-do next bride (Minnie Driver) who’s family links may have been a little helpful to him ending up as a TV executive in Montreal. And finally he meets his third wife to be at his own wedding.This one he has to pursue and despite Wife 3 (Rosamund Pike) being way beyond his league, the marriage lasts and the story unfolds with little snippets of his first two lives telling us why he makes the decisions he doesIt’s not as funny as I expected it to be but it’s a lovely, inoffensive film, easy to watch with plenty of quirky bits to keep you interested. See if you liked The Wackness and maybe Juno.8/10Smile factor 7½/10 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsfjXNMQt8I&w=640&h=390]