{"id":5618,"date":"2015-07-24T22:48:13","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T21:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/?p=5618"},"modified":"2015-07-24T22:48:13","modified_gmt":"2015-07-24T21:48:13","slug":"the-legend-of-barney-thomson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk\/reviews\/2015\/07\/24\/the-legend-of-barney-thomson\/","title":{"rendered":"The Legend of Barney Thomson"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Legend of Barney Thomson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\nFormat:<\/B> Cinema

\nRelease date:<\/B> 24 July 2015

\nDistributor:<\/B> Icon

\nDirector:<\/B> Robert Carlyle

\nWriters:<\/B> Richard Cowan, Colin McLaren

\nCast:<\/B> Robert Carlyle, Emma Thompson, Ray Winstone

\nCanada, UK 2015

\n96 mins\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Barney Thomson (Robert Carlyle) is, in his 50s, wifeless, childless and largely friendless, his only social life revolving around the occasional chat with local loser Charlie (Brian Pettifer) and the strained relationship with his harridan of a mother Cemolina (Emma Thompson), who views him as a free taxi service and unwelcome distraction from bingo. All he has to cling to is his loyalty and professionalism in his decades-old position as barber in a small family concern. But even here, his status is slipping, as his lack of \u2018patter\u2019 with the customers means that he is being moved further and further away from his old prestige position in the window. His anger and frustration lead him to a fatal blunder, and soon dogged copper Inspector Holdall (Ray Winstone) is on his trail, as Barney finds himself a suspect in an ongoing serial killer case.<\/p>\n

Robert Carlyle\u2019s directorial debut is the kind of low\/mid-budget black farce that the British film industry seems determined to flog to the general public (think Deadly Advice<\/i>, The Young Poisoner\u2019s Handbook<\/i>), kind of like a Brian Rix number with frozen body parts. It\u2019s too comically broad to work along the lines of Shallow Grave<\/i>, too dark to work as broad comedy and just never really flies. Part of the problem is that it\u2019s built around a character who, the script reminds us, is devoid of charm, and, as played by Carlyle, exudes a kind of whining \u2018why me?\u2019aura. So while the plot contrives to elaborately humiliate and persecute Mr Thomson, it\u2019s still hard to feel too much sympathy for a man who doesn\u2019t seem to care much about anybody else, or indeed, whether he is liked, which is not an accusation that could be levelled at The Legend of Barney Thomson<\/i>, the film. On the contrary, TLOBT<\/i> exudes a certain desperation<\/i> to be liked, it\u2019s full of outr\u00e9 bits of \u2018funny\u2019 business, sweary old ladies and vivisection humour. We\u2019re barely started on the voice-over-heavy opening sequence before we get a severed cock on screen, to be followed later with a scene built around an arse on the chief inspector\u2019s desk. Likewise, Ray Winstone\u2019s cockney rozzer schtick seems to be here because people like his cockney rozzer schtick, and regardless of whether it belongs in this film. Which I\u2019m not entirely convinced it does. And there\u2019s an increasing unreality about the plotting, which becomes more and more contrived as the coincidental serial murders and unlikely accidental deaths start to pile up, which would be fine, if it didn\u2019t undermine all the Woman\u2019s Realm<\/i> and fag butt verisimilitude that much of the dialogue and production design is straining for.<\/p>\n

On the plus side you have Emma Thompson having a ball as the foul Cemolina, surrounded by a great cast of solid character players. Glasgow is smartly used as a backdrop, and it\u2019s beautifully framed and lit, with a well-achieved shabby, seen-better-days aesthetic. On the whole, though, it\u2019s frustrating. There\u2019s a fair few nice lines here and there, and I wonder how the source novel reads, because a scene at a funfair where Charlie (who has witnessed Barney trying to dispose of a body) uses this leverage to try to get a free hot dog and coke out of him in the most pathetic blackmail bid ever, gives a hint towards a sorrier, sadder film, one that used all these fine performers and crumbling urban detail to so something a bit more aching and singular, away from all these coppers with shooters and bagged bits of bum.<\/p>\n

Mark Stafford<\/B><\/I><\/p>\n

Watch the trailer:<\/B><\/p>\n