The Legend of Barney Thomson review – chaotically brutal comedy noir

Robert Carlyle makes a capable directorial debut, serving up this chaotically brutal comedy noir with some very broad gags. He plays Barney Thomson, a middle-aged Glasgow barber, depressed about his job and getting bullied by his terrifying mother, uproariously played by Emma Thompson, who has an outrageous line when a bit of dunked biscuit falls off into her tea. A ferocious argument at work concludes with a gruesome accident and poor Barney finds himself prime suspect in a serial killer case, with a malevolent Cockney copper played by Ray Winstone all over Barney’s case like a cheap suit. He is himself feeling the heat from his superior officer: a nice cameo from Tom Courtenay. The Tarantino-esque finale doesn’t quite match the downbeat comedy of the rest of the movie, but Carlyle has some smart touches. The Glasgow locations that he and his cinematographer Fabian Wagner find are impressive, and Emma Thompson gives us a scene-stealing performance which is enjoyably macabre.