The dizzying comic energy and intellectual vigor of Mordecai Richler’s 1997 satire have largely been drained from director Richard J. Lewis’ agreeable but inevitably lesser version of “Barney’s ...

So far the year's best title goes to the wry drama “Barney's Version,” so direct is its meaning and yet so elusive is its promise. The film, based on a novel by acclaimed Canadian writer Mordecai ...