With his reputation as one of Britain’s most well-loved and respected actors secured, Robert Carlyle has stepped into the role of director in his debut feature, The Legend of Barney Thomson. An adaptation of Douglas Lindsay’s novel, this macabre comedy features a strong British cast including Carlyle as the titular Barney, Emma Thompson, Ray Winstone, Ashley Jensen and Tom Courtenay.
From its opening, The Legend of Barney Thomson displays the timeless virtues of the darkest Ealing Comedies (like the wonderful Kind Hearts and Coronets), with echoes of the Coen Brothers’ ability to establish peculiar characters in even more peculiar locations, without descending into being quirky for quirky’s sake.
Barney is a witless, oddball barber whose otherwise empty life revolves around cutting hair – a job that he is so ill suited for, he risks being fired from the Glasgow barbershop where he has worked for twenty years. Starting in the illustrious window seat, he has been steadily relegated further away from the public eye, until we find him suffering the ultimate humiliation of being assigned a space without a real barber’s chair. His short temper costs him customers, who would rather wait the extra time for one of his colleagues rather than fall victim to his wayward scissors.
Across the city, the police, led by a ferociously vulgar Ray Winstone, are on the hunt for a serial killer whose signature move is to send the fresh body parts of his victims in the mail. An embittered Barney becomes embroiled in the investigation after accidentally killing his boss during a fight. Seeking out the help of his crass, washed-up Mother (Emma Thompson), Barney soon discovers that the more he tries to distance himself, the deeper he becomes embroiled in the series of killings.
Except for a single pop-culture reference (about Brad and Angelina, no less) The Legend of Barney Thomson takes place in an ageless Glasgow that could feasibly be any period in the last fifty years. The colour is drained from everything; grey buildings are inhabited by grey personalities – with the faded red sign of Barney’s barbershop the only break in the carefully measured visual monotony. Carlyle perfectly presents a Glasgow that thrives as a character unto itself, setting a backdrop with the eerie, unsettling nature of Twin Peaks and the small-minded simplicity of a Shane Meadows city.
The killer-barber setup obviously shares similarities with Sweeney Todd, but Barney, for all his faults, never displays any intentions worse than selfishness and extreme naivety. His social ineptitude and lack of guise make for some of the funniest scenes, particularly during his several interactions with Winstone’s detective. Emma Thompson (herself only two years older than Carlyle) is arguably the stand out performance. Her foul-mouthed, devious turn as Barney’s mother provides some of the most entertaining moments of the entire film.
As a directorial debut, The Legend of Barney Thomson is an incredibly impressive and adroit effort from Carlyle. Its references and influences are clear (including a nice nod to The Third Man during a fairground scene) but it skillfully balances its classic inspirations with a refreshing approach to its dark topic. Too easily could he have blunted the language or on screen violence to open the film up to a wider audience, but in staying true to both the source material and the necessity of the subject matter, he has created a truly impressive introduction to his career behind the camera.
The Legend of Barney Thomson will be showing at Cineworld Nottingham from Friday 24 July 2015.
The Legend of Barney Thomson Trailer
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