Bernie

Synopsis: Assistant funeral director Bernie Tiede (Jack Black) is one of the most popular residents of the small East Texas town of Carthage. He befriends a much-disliked widow, curmudgeonly Marjorie Nugent (Shirley McLaine). They become very close friends but she develops a stifling hold on him. One day after Marjorie has not been seen by the townsfolk for a long while, Bernie finds himself accused of her murder. No one can believe Bernie is the killer, but the D.A. Danny Buck (Matthew McConaughey) is determined to nail him.

Director Richard Linklater has been responsible for a diverse range of films and now he ventures into a fact-inspired, off-beat comedy starring Jack Black, with whom he previously worked in his very successful School Of Rock. Linklater read the real-life story of Bernie Tiede in the newspaper in the late 1990s and felt compelled to pen a screenplay. He employs a wonderful storytelling device which uses the local townfolks’ opinions (some real locals were used) of Bernie and Marjorie as the driver for the narrative so that at times the film appears almost to be a mockumentary.

To catch our attention, and give us a sense of Bernie, in the opening minutes of the film we experience a somewhat confronting scene in which our protagonist is giving a demo to medical students of how to prep a body for a funeral. With loving care Bernie carefully trims a dead codger’s fingernails, packs the mouth with cotton wool, puts makeup on, all the time giving a commentary that is at once riveting and disturbing. Then we travel alongside Bernie in his car as he cheerily sings hymns along with the radio. Linklater then starts inter-cutting the story with comments from those who knew Bernie and immediately we know that he is not all that he appears to be.

Whilst one can read accounts of this real life crime and trial on the internet, the film is probably more fun the less one knows of the facts. Because Jack Black depicts Bernie as the archetypical “nice guy”, as an audience we can understand the locals’ questioning of Bernie’s guilt. Indeed so pro-Bernie are the Carthage locals, Danny Buck has to move the trial to another town in an attempt to get a conviction.    

In a career-topping performance, Black eerily inhabits his persona, and with veteran McLaine the two make a formidable and memorable screen couple. The constant ambiguity of the nature of Bernie (is he gay or asexual, kindness personified, or a money-grubbing schemer?) gives interesting food for thought. McConaughey is excellent as Buck, while the various locals are a pleasure to listen to.with their homespun take on Bernie's behaviour.

Whether it is valid to make comedy out of real-life crime is questionable, but the idea really works here. And underneath the uncomfortable laughs are a few really worthwhile questions about the nature of crime and punishment, and what crimes, if any, are forgivable? In an era of cheap schlock-comedy, Bernie is a real stand-out.

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