Barney's Version

Can someone sign Paul Giamatti up to play every bellyaching, sex-obsessed Jewish antihero of 20th-century literature from now on? If you can say one thing about Richard J. Lewis’s movie of Mordecai Richler’s novel, it’s that the film proves the 43-year-old star may be the only one who can do those great überschlemiels justice. But the film around him is unfortunately equivalent to the shamelessly pandering small-screen programming you’d find on basic cable.