Movie Review - Bernie

Bernie (2012)

Starring Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, and Matthew McConaughey

Directed by Richard Linklater

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Bernie Tiede is perhaps the nicest guy in the small town of Carthage, Texas.  Loved by all, as the assistant funeral director at the local mortuary Bernie is quiet, kind, gentle, and a seemingly genuinely sweet man.  Shortly after the chairman of the local bank dies, Bernie (played brilliantly by Jack Black in by far the best role of his career) pays a visit to his widow Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine) to check in to see how she's doing and a friendship is formed.  Despite Marjorie's reputation around town as being the bitchiest and meanest woman for miles, Bernie refuses to listen to the naysayers.  For Marjorie, the relationship gives her an emotional connection with someone since her attitude has turned many (including all her family members) away from her.  For Bernie, while he also enjoys the friendship (which is only vaguely, if at all, sexual), he finds himself able to live a bit beyond his means thanks to Marjorie's bank account.  However, rather than spending the money on himself, he often doles it out to needy townsfolk, endearing him to all those in Carthage.  Unfortunately, after several years, Marjorie becomes more and more possessive, creating a rift in her relationship with Bernie and forcing the town's saintly gentleman to go to extreme means to cut ties with her.

Bernie is rather surprisingly and unexpectedly one of the best films of 2012 thanks in huge part to Jack Black's great performance.  Admittedly, I've been avoiding watching this movie on Netflix simply because of Black's starring role, but this was certainly a different turn for the actor known for his comedic roles.  While certainly humorous, the character of Bernie so easily could've fallen into an SNL parody-type one-note role (reminiscent perhaps of the Al Franken Stuart Smalley character), but Black manages to create depth and layers in a type of character who often isn't given such opportunities.  That's likely due in part to the fact that Bernie is based on a true story -- so the title character is "real" as opposed to "created" -- but Black is certainly the conduit to bring the real person to believable life onscreen.

Director Richard Linklater has created an interesting film in Bernie.  Just as much as Bernie is a portrait of a flawed man, it's also a picture of small town Americana that someone could easily see as insulting, but I see as a tribute to that slowed-down, "old school" Bible-thumping lifestyle.  Linklater sets up much of the film as a faux-documentary using a mix of actors and real-life Carthage residents who knew Bernie Tiede first hand who comment on the much revered man.  Yes, I found myself laughing at the folks at times which is why I could see some taking this flick as a diatribe against this Southern culture, but I never found it condescending or demeaning in tone.

Still, Bernie is a film of many tones -- comedy, drama, courtroom saga -- all of which are nearly perfectly melded together into one of the most interesting and underseen films of 2012.

The RyMickey Rating:  A-