There are certain clichés expected when films are described as ‘quirky’ or as being ‘based on a true story’, including including eccentric characters, unusual situations and unexpected outcomes. When both these descriptions are paired together, you sometimes get something that rises above the clichés. The latest film to do so is Richard Linklater’s Bernie, an engaging blend of genres twisted together to create an interesting film experience.
Bernie is based on the true story of Bernie Tiede, a much loved and admired Assistant Funeral Director in a small East Texas town. Bernie (played by an understated Jack Black) befriends and then murders the increasingly needy and abusive Marjorie Nugent, the meanest widow in town, played by Shirley MacLaine in an equally understated performance.
Bernie was so loved, and Nugent so hated, that the townsfolk were more than prepared to forgive him – given the chance to sit on the jury, they would’ve acquitted him. Enter the less-than-clueless District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson (Matthew McConaughey in one of his better performances), who seeks to move the trial to a different town in order to ensure a fairer hearing for the much-admired murderer.
Texas natives Linklater and co-screenwriter Skip Hollandsworth (whose Texas Monthly article the film is based on) have worked for more than 10 years on this story about life ‘behind the pine-cone curtain’ – a life based on Texan and Southern sensibilities, and an unusual understanding of and good over evil, and forgiveness. It is this exploration of good, evil and forgiveness that underlines the movie.
There has been debate among reviewers as regards defining the film’s genre. In fact, Linklater blends a series of genres to try and make sense of this strange story, blending straight narrative drama (from the point of view of Bernie Tiede) with mockumentary-style interviews with the real-life townspeople, who act as an opinionated Greek chorus. The only voice missing, obviously, is that of Nugent herself. Part tragi-comedy, part ‘investigative journalism’ and part mockumentary, this mix of genres drives the story and reflects the uncertainly of the actual truth of the case.
At the beginning of the film, Bernie tells a funeral conference that you ‘cannot have grief tragically become a comedy’, which is exactly what this film does. In Bernie, Linklater shines a spotlight on a Texas town and does so with a good balance of insider knowledge and outsider objectivity, one of the main reasons the film works so well.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Bernie
Director: Richard Linklater
USA, 2011, 95 mins
Available on Blu-ray and DVD through Madman Entertainment
DVD extras: True story to Feature Film – documentary; Amazing Grace – documentary; The Gossips; Deleted Scenes; Theatrical Trailer; Madman Propaganda
Rated M
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