Sometimes, when a movie emerges from a book, a crucial ingredient gets left out along the way. In the case of “Barney’s Version,” it’s the wit. Based on a rambling, time-shifting and often very funny ...

Some people like movies where stuff happens. But some of us prefer movies that focus on the people the stuff happens to. Movies like "Barney's Version," a reelin'-in-the-years chronicle of the ...

“Barney’s Version” is a bloated, confused movie—first a black comedy, then a distended family drama and never fully committed to either possibility. Adapting Mordechai Richler’s 1997 novel, director ...