Saturday, January 29, 2011

Barney's Version: Can this ugly angler really catch a Pike?

By Chris Tookey
Last updated at 12:57 AM on 28th January 2011

Verdict: Fine acting can't redeem plodding tale

Paul Giamatti won a Golden Globe for his performance in this rambling, literary film about an unprepossessing Canadian TV producer who improbably beds a succession of attractive ladies, culminating in his dream woman — so adorably played by the serenely beautiful Rosamund Pike that you want to yell at her not to throw away her life on such an egotistical creep. 

Beyond saving: The film cannot be saved even with the fine acting of Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman

Beyond saving: The film cannot be saved even with the fine acting of Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman

I can see that on the pages of Mordecai Richler’s original novel the thought processes of the central character might have made him appealing, but on screen he’s just a jerk. 

 

The film has its incidental pleasures, and Dustin Hoffman turns in a lively performance as the anti-hero’s engagingly tactless father; but Richard J. Lewis’s direction never feels cinematic.

The project needed the gentler pacing of television to win us over to the central anti-hero, and make the supporting characters feel less like caricatures.

 

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/reviews/article-1351290/Barneys-Version-Can-ugly-angler-really-catch-Pike.html?ITO=1490

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