Die Legende von Barney Thomson

Glasgow police Detective Inspector Holdall (Ray Winstone) leads the failing investigation into a serial killer who dismembers his victims. He gets demoted and has to report to rival Detective Inspector June Robertson (Ashley Jensen). Barney Thomson (Robert Carlyle) is a bitter mediocre barber and nobody likes his angry demeaner. His boss Wullie Henderson fires him and he accidentally kills Wullie. He brings the body home and his mom Cemolina (Emma Thompson) chops it up for unknown reasons.

Robert Carlyle tries his hand at directing. The material has some dark humor. The cast is stacked. It works to some extend. Carlyle needs a more daring visual eye to fully satisfy the material's dark surreal potential. It's a solid debut but he doesn't have an unique enough style. He remains a great actor but his directing career is still in doubt. At least, Emma Thompson seems to be having loads of fun. The movie sings whenever she's with Carlyle.

This crime-comedy is lead actor Robert Carlyle's directorial debut. In it he plays the title character who is a late middle-aged barber living a life of humiliations who accidentally kills his boss after an argument, leading to a chain reaction of ever worsening events.

Typified by distinctive on-location shooting in the east end of Glasgow, this is a pretty good effort all round. It benefits from some effective comic acting by its cast, aside from Carlyle himself the two other standouts are Ray Winstone as a cockney cop displeased to be stationed north of the border and, best of all, working under heavy make-up Emma Thompson is very convincing as Carlyle's elderly Glaswegian mother; as per usual she puts in fine work here and nails her character pretty firmly. The plot-line isn't really massively interesting to be fair and, instead, the film works as a character-driven comedy. Fortunately, the characters are, for the most part, well-drawn and the comedy is often pretty funny. Things are ultimately rounded off with a finale that is perhaps a little predictable once the basic set-up is established but for this it can be forgiven. All-in-all, while it doesn't exactly break the mould, this film is still a pretty solid bit of fun.

Greatly enjoyed this film. The weakest element is probably the story which is on the improbable end of the spectrum but, as long as you forgive the absurdity of the plot and just go with the flow, it's a thoroughly enjoyable 90 minutes. They could also possibly have done with a little more explanation of the back-story rather than jumping straight in - some might find it all a little complicated especially in the first half hour. The comedy is uniquely Glasgow and the language typically (and authentically!) blue. Visually it's all nicely shot with some of the more off-beat Glasgow landmarks featuring prominently. The acting is great with, as others have noted, standout performances by both Emma Thomson & Ray Winstone. I can't help thinking that Robert Carlyle as Director got better performances out of his other leads than he did out of Robert Carlyle (Actor) - perhaps the double responsibility of first time director and lead actor was a little too much to pull off. Not that his performance was bad, just a little lacking in finesse in places.

Minor criticisms apart, this is a very enjoyable movie and well worth watching.

Funny Clever Great acting Great script.

U. K. Comedy at its cutting edge.

Try it. You'll be pieces.

This is a dark comedy that gives genuine giggles. Suspend disbelief and sit back with some popcorn. The whole cast is great. Emma Thompson's role as the jaded mother of Barney is surprising, but her performance is outstanding.