The Legend of Barney Thomson

The Legend of Barney Thomson is born from the city it is set in.  It’s humour, people and language are so Glaswegian that you wonder how it will go down to any audience not based in Scotland.  Robert Carlyle’s debut film as a director is as Scottish as he is and sees both him and Emma Thompson steal the show.

Barney Thomson is a man who enjoys being boring.  A barber, he dislikes it when the punters want to talk and would rather just get on with his job.  Sadly, as the years have gone by this has seen him pushed further and further away from the prize window seat and into the back of the shop.  As his lack of chat makes the customers uncomfortable.  Throw in a domineering mother and his life seems to be stuck in a rut, with no escape in site.  However, when he ends up accidentally killing his bosses son, things suddenly get a lot more exciting.  Although probably not in the way he might have wished.

Barney Thomson is a wonderfully dark comedy.  It’s full of blood and spit and has a real grit to it.  Carlyle’s Thomson is essentially a wet sponge.  Floating through life being bossed around by his mother or laughed at by his colleagues.  He’s pathetic and Carlyle gets that across well.  His mother on the other hand sees Emma Thompson aging up in a way that is very different from Nanny McPhee.  She’s brilliantly vile and as she flounces through life with her group of elderly friends there’s a real twinkle to her performance.  She’s that mother who with one hand is slapping her son around the head and with the other is cheekily grabbing his mate’s backside.

Where the film slips is in the plot.  Based on a book, it’s just a bit predictable.  There’s a twist towards the end but it’s so clearly sign posted that if you haven’t figured it out you just aren’t trying hard enough.  The plot of the film ends up being secondary to its character and delightfully real Glaswegian background.  A background that even turns Ray Winstone’s tired old London copper routine into something fresh.  As he growls his way through scenes, despising everything that reminds him that he’s in Scotland and not England.

The Legend of Barney Thomson never rises above being just good.  It will make you laugh and will nicely fill your brain in the time you spend watching it.  When you walk out of the cinema it is unlikely to ever by tapping on your shoulder and bothering you again.  It’s worth seeing for its depiction of a gritty and urban Glasgow and also for a wonderfully against type performance by Thompson, but ultimately is one that you can probably wait until it pops onto Netflix in a few months for.