Barney's Version

[Ovation]

A good adaptation of the excellent Mordecai Richler novel that is made better than the sum of its parts by very good and excellent performances--especially by Paul Giamatti (sp?) and Dustin Hoffman.

I recommend watching the film first and reading the book afterwards. The first will be entertaining and the second will be something to savour.

[George Bellefontaine]

I recommend watching the film first and reading the book afterwards. The first will be entertaining and the second will be something to savour.

Too late for me, Paul. I read the book several years ago and loved it. I am curious, though, as to just how closely the film will follow the novel. I found at times the book was difficult to follow but I`m sure it was written that way on purpose, so I do wonder how all this will be handled in the film. I`m not sure who plays who in the film, but those are two great actors there.

[Ovation]

Giamatti is Barney (and he's channelling Richler). Hoffman plays his dad. It's not a perfect film (could have used tighter editing and one critic pointed out a shortcoming that agree with--the filmmakers tried to shoehorn a few too many things from the book into the movie). However, I rarely let the perfect be the enemy of the good and so I still recommend a viewing. I'll be adding it to my collection at some point.