The Legend of Barney Thomson
two stars
Dir: Robert Carlyle
With: Robert Carlyle, Emma Thompson
Runtime: 93 minutes
GLASGOW'S Robert Carlyle shows he is no mean force behind a camera in this, his directorial debut and the festival's opening night gala. Adapted from the novel by Douglas Lindsay, the would-be legend of the title is a mouse of a man despised by his mother (a heavily made-up Emma Thompson) and his fellow barbers in an East End establishment. But fate is about to call on Barney, and it is not looking for a short back and sides. Making stylish use of its Glasgow locations, Carlyle's black farce about a serial killer moseys along in fine enough fashion, but it suffers from a fatal lack of laughs. Even more of a problem is a toe-curling performance by Thompson, playing a wee Glesga wumman, that is about as on the money as one would expect from a Londoner.
Opens nationwide July 24
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