Storyline
Barney Thomson, awkward, diffident, Glasgow barber, lives a life of desperate mediocrity and his uninteresting life is about to go from 0 to 60 in five seconds, as he enters the grotesque and comically absurd world of the serial killer.
Directors
Writers
Cast
Ray Winstone, Stephen McCole, Emma Thompson, James Cosmo, Tom Courtenay, David Speed, Martin Compston, Ashley Jensen, Robert Carlyle, Brian Pettifer, Scott Dymond, James Casey, Barbara Rafferty, Kevin Guthrie, Sam Robertson, Paul Ellard, Eileen McCallum, Matt Costello, Ruari Cannon, Skye Cooper Barr, Finlay Welsh, Dolina MacLennan, David McGowan, Nicola Roy, Sarah McCardie, Anne Downie, Peter Adams, Penny Lamb, Jamie Merritt, Matthew Baxter
Trailer
Reviews
83
Ultimately, Barney Thomson’s roots are exposed too easily, and the question of “where’d they get that from?” often trumps our curiosity of where the film at hand is going, and that’s a problem.
80
Carlyle shoots the story with a propulsive, page-turning energy that’s enjoyably at odds with the Glasgow backdrop, which is dilapidated to the point of timelessness.
60
Empire
Merrily gruesome black comedy.
60
The Guardian
Emma Thompson gives us a scene-stealing performance which is enjoyably macabre.
60
There are more than a few false notes here.... Still, the sight of Emma Thompson, wearing old-lady prosthetics and a leopard skin coat as Barney’s mum...is not to be missed.
