Reviews

Seeing this little indie flick in an alternative Auckland cinema toward the end of our ever-short student recovery session (the holidays), it hit me late in the game that it deserves recognition.

Winning multiple awards last season, including a Golden Globe for Best Actor going to Paul Giamatti's portrayal of Barney Panofsky, it is only fitting that this film has graced New Zealand screens after everyone else in the world has seen it – except for Syria; they're busy with "other things".

The basic story is about Barney, a lovable bear of a man with enough body hair to make audiences wonder how it was possible he could land three bombshells for wives and subsequently toss them aside for a life alone. He's a prick, an adulterer, a producer, and a writer, but perhaps the best all-encompassing term to describe him is "a bastard". You gotta love this guy's nerve. He speaks his mind frankly and often rudely, much to our amusement, while drinking, smoking, and sexing his way throughout the bulk of his time onscreen.

This is not a typical love story – far from it; after all, it's the story of a guy who falls in love with another woman at his own wedding. His father, played brilliantly by the charismatic Dustin Hoffman, shows exactly where Barney inherited his charming vices from, to the point of encouraging him to pursue the elegant Miriam (Rosamund Pike) on the day of his betrothal.

The friendship between Barney and his partner in crime "Boogie" (Scott Speedman) is perhaps the most intriguing relationship of them all (no, they're not gay). They jive off one another, embracing the picturesque backdrops of Italy and taking the term "wingmen" to new levels. It comes as a shock to see this friendship disintegrate later in the film, although not without cause, and surprises us even further when Barney is implicated in Boogie's murder – at which point the strange love life of Barney takes a back seat in his vintage convertible to the new passenger in the front: murder mystery.

Giamatti deserves his golden globe on this occasion, as with most of the characters he plays, they are often imbued with such charisma that you can't take your eyes off him, such as in Cinderella Man and Sideways. From his shagadelic hair to his impressive onscreen ageing and beard styling, Barney steals the show as a man so deeply grooved in his ways that not even three marriages, his best friend's disappearance, or the failure of an outboard motor in the middle of a lake can shake him out of it. And the cheeky opening scene alone is worth the watch.

Written by Mordecai Richler and Michael Konyves
Directed by Richard J. Lewis