A
cracking wee film, chock full of great Scottish humour with just a touch of
cockney banter via Mr Raymond Winstone. The Legend of Barney Thomson (2015),
which opened the 2015 Edinburgh International Film Festival to great acclaim,
is based on Douglas Lindsay's novel The
Long Midnight of Barney Thomson and was adapted for the screen by Richard
Cowan. It has the distinction of being directed by Maryhill born Robert Carlyle
who also takes the title role.
A charisma bi-pass and no patter.... |
Barney
works in a local family run barber shop in the Bridgeton area of Glasgow’s East
End, and is described by his colleges has having a charisma bi-pass and accused
of not having one of the most essential qualifications of a Glasgow barber -
patter! He worships his mother, a rather colourful and outspoken character that
shares the same name, although spelt different, with the rather dreadful
pudding that you may remember being served up at school diners! Played with
obvious relish by Emma Thompson, Cemolina Thomson is certainly one of the
highlights of this movie, as is the afore mentioned Ray Winstone who plays the
Glasgow hating London policemen Detective Inspector Holdall.
Life
for Barney Thomson consists of boring mediocrity, that is until one
particularly dark day his boss, Wullie Henderson (Stephen McCole), tells him
that the family has decided to let him go. Incensed by this unexpected
announcement he accidentally kills Wullie! Meanwhile in another part of Glasgow
our cockney police inspector and his long suffering sidekick are investigating,
none to successfully, a series of murders that have become known as 'the body
part killings' the reason is that the thoughtful killer sends a victims body
part to the dead persons relative’s as a keepsake! It's when the investigation
overlaps with the disappearance of the deceased Wullie that Barney's life
becomes less mundane.
This
is a brilliantly gruesome black comedy I had the great pleasure of actually
seeing in Glasgow and comparing it to the dross showing elsewhere in the multiplex
is head and shoulders above anything else on release at this particular time
and certainly should not be missed. A love letter to a great Scottish city from
one of its best-known sons.
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