Barney Panofsky (Paul Giamatti) is about to meet his third wife at his second wedding (yes, that’s not a typo.) His first love is long gone (not in a good way) and his second wife, Minnie Driver is somebody he can’t escape fast enough. Unlike his past women – whining and difficult – this THIRD wife/love of his life has a voice that is breathtaking with looks that are porcelain elegant. Her name is Miriam (Rosamund Pike) and Barney goes as far as to abandon his wedding –The Graduate style – to go after her. The question is what does she see in him? Barney is the lovable Giamatti, not a real looker, a possible murderer, and a true curmudgeon – the very definition of why self-help books are written. He even has that familiar angst-ridden behavior that we remember him by for his most famous portrayal in Sideways. The fact that she’s reading Saul Bellow’s “Herzog” when he sees her, might give us some insight as to why the two might connect. But years later when he makes a wrong move, and things don’t turn out as Barney always expects them too, he sinks into his own alter ego, in a way dictating his own fate, or, Barney’s version. Unlike the intellectual energy of Mordecai Richler’s 1997 satire, director Richard J. Lewis low-keys this into a steady but slow drama better left of the page. Barney’s father is played by the hugely talented Dustin Hoffman, a lonely, boisterous and opinionated Police officer who manages to control himself at social events, while Scott Speedman does a spot-on job as Barney’s free-spirited best friend. Two and a half tiaras
