The Barber

Seems like I like movies with the title the barber thoroughly enjoyed this film and the barber with malcolm McDowell. This film wasnt your knock down drag out action thriller or a gore fest serial killer film. It's a mystery thriller with a couple of decent twists and also features excellent performances by the cast especially mr Scott Glenn. I'm very happy we purchased the bluray as we'll watch it annually!! Very well written and directed with a average at best budget they did fantastic. Watch it or better yet purchase the bluray on Ebay cheap like we did.

A very interesting twist to the hold serial killer story, with great acting from Scott Glenn and Chris Coy. Yes, some plot twists can easily be spotted beforehand, but I guess this is Cinema, not sleight-of-hand. And yes... the choices made by the female police character are plain dumb, but overall a good watch. On hindsight, 90% of the credit for the quality of this movie should go straight to Scott Glenn.

This movie is excellent. And the people who say it's not all have the same complaint. It's not a noir neo noir film with endless 'twists'. A twists within twists and yet more twists. It's not told backwards it does have weird cuts and camera work. And Lord knows no shakeycam. How can there even exist a movie that goes from A to B to C without the obligatory 'slow burn' that starts nowhere goes nowhere and trails off to nothing like so many other highly rated movies do? That's the beauty of this film. It's tight, compact, direct, well acted, well constructed no nonsense no making the audience jump through hoops to appreciate what a genius the director sees himself as. Scott Glenn is great as a homespun malevolence playing it easy. Chris Coy does an excellent job of playing a guy who 'might' be a bad guy. All I can take one point off is the Audrey character and her involvement. Her character is unneeded entirely.

My review will differ quite much from the others. I don't why this movie is so low rated..!! Yes, I think the ratings should be higher.

The movie slowly advances while revealing the characters true motivations with twisting at every corner. I have to say that, I haven't see some of the things coming. As the movie moves slowly, audience can get a little bored but the climax makes up for it fully.

"The watch trick" is something I truly liked. It was inevitable that a women will respond to it. 'The barber' has a charming and respectable appearance attracting "yummy" women.

The movie in total gives a view that it's the quite and innocent guys you won't see coming... ;)

An alleged veteran is forced to come out of hiding by unforeseeable circumstances, he must employ his skill once more to overcome the problem. No, this is not John Wick or Taken. The Barber is more of a noir detective movie that matches two different characters with hidden identities. The two are embroiled in a quite interesting mind game, however the plot relies too heavily on far-fetched plot devices and coincidences which feels underwhelming and contrived at latter half.

The Barber Eugene (Scott Glenn) meets with the young ambitious John (Chris Coy). Right at the introduction, John is very aggressive in his approach, claiming that Eugene is in fact a serial killer. The two try to outsmart each other and the movie is pretty good on creating layers for both of them. Scott Glenn delivers the character with precision, often looking feeble but still charismatically bizarre when needs be.

For his counterpart, Chris Coy performs admirable as well. He exhibits the contradicting youth to Glenn's more experienced nature. The chemistry is there as each finds more about each other's secrets. Visually, the movie has fitting noir look, it sets in a small town and some of the scenes are beautifully shot.

Unfortunately, it often resorts to cheap plot devices. Characters would need to find or do things just in the right time and right place. The chances of these occurring are astronomically low, especially since they speak in vague manner, yet the movie pushes the scenes as if they are destined to be. Either because the alleged killer is near psychic or the victim is dumb. It is not a clever scheme or even a planned one, at some points the movie even utilizes more subplots and flashbacks, creating inconsistent pacing flow that never feels resolved.

This is a shame because it could've been more engaging if the plot was simplified, instead it becomes forced as it tries to set overly elaborate twists. If one can get pass the irregularities, there is a good acting presence that might just entertain more on human drama aspect than its murky mystery thrill.