Richard J Lewis’s humorous character study charts the romantic entanglements of a politically incorrect man, based on the award-winning novel by Mordecai Richler.

Anchored by a sterling performance from Paul Giamatti, which won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy), Barney’s Version is also a slow-paced murder mystery.

The chief suspect is the malcontent protagonist and we’re asked to swallow his version of events until the film’s closing frames.

A mosaic of flashbacks gradually exposes the sad truth, not that screenwriter Michael Konyves is in any hurry to get there, stringing us along for 133 minutes.

Giamatti’s lead performance is matched by Rosamund Pike as the object of his fickle affections.

After a strong supporting turn in Made In Dagenham, the British actress is absolutely luminous here and it’s easy to see why Barney would set his life on self-destruct to woo her.

More problematic is why she would return the advances of a schmuck, who is charitably described by his father as miserable and ungrateful.

Barney Panofsky (Giamatti) weds his first wife, free spirit Clara (Rachelle Lefevre), in Rome but their marriage ends in bitterness, resentment and tragedy.

Barney returns to America and his thankless job as a TV producer for Totally Unnecessary Productions, responsible for churning out the low grade serial, O’Malley Of The North.

Within months he walks down the aisle with a chatterbox Jewish princess (Minnie Driver).

At the wedding reception, Barney meets the beautiful Miriam (Pike), and he is smitten.

‘For the first time in my life I am truly, seriously, irretrievably in love,’ Barney tells fun-loving best friend, Boogie (Scott Speedman).

With the party in full swing, Barney begins his tenacious pursuit of Miriam, who rebuffs the advances of the groom.

Boogie urges him on, offering a sobering assessment of marriage to the second Mrs P: ‘Look what you’ve become: a TV hustler married to a rich man’s vulgar daughter.’ Convinced that Miriam is his one true love and buoyed by advice from his father (Dustin Hoffman), Barney follows his heart, regardless of who he hurts.

Barney’s Version tests our patience by asking us to spend half a lifetime in the company of a man who can suck the fun out of a room by simply walking into it.

If there is a cinematic equivalent of a downer, it’s Barney Panofsky.

We have no sympathy for him – he is the architect of his own doom and deserves everything that he gets.

Our emotional ties are all to Miriam and when Detective O’Hearne (Mark Addy) appears in present day sequences, angrily vowing to expose Barney as a murderer, we don’t care if he is found guilty.

Driver injects comic relief as a harpy, proving that behind every grating man there is a grating woman.

• Release Date: Friday 28 January 2011
• Certificate: 15
• Runtime: 134mins