Firstly I’d like to make two points. Labelling this a comedy is a bit of a misrepresentation and a total disservice to Jack Black; though darkly humorous at times and some chuckles (mostly not from him), it’s not the next “Jack Black” comedy. I feel that they were stuck with no idea on how to market this fantastic film to a “wider audience” and fell back on the easy “From the Director of School of Rock” and “Jack Black”. That audience will walk out less than thrilled I feel. Secondly, the synopsis is terrible and does a disservice to the story. Ok...
Bernie tells the true story of Bernie Tiede, an assistance mortician in the small Texan town Carthage, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of an elderly widow, Ms Nugent, played by the always great Shirley MacLaine. The film is directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed & Confused, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly) and co-written with Skip Hollandsworth, the journalist who wrote the article that caught Linklater’s interest.
The film opens with Bernie as a guest speaker demonstrating to a class the proper way to prepare a body for presentation at a funeral. He is soft spoken, gentle, never morbid and respectful of both the dead and living alike. It’s a wonderful scene and displays his nature beautifully. The film then firmly sets its style using vintage style title cards, intercutting interviews with Carthage locals (and a couple of actors to help steer the narrative – it’s clear who), along with the dramatisation of events. It is paced nicely and never feels like a clunky mechanism to espouse exposition. I saw it described as having a mockumentary style, but more serious... I’m pretty sure there is a word for that already. Regardless, neither of those descriptions is accurate; it’s a docudrama if anything, though sadly that tends to make one think of bad TV movies.
Bernie was a pillar of the community, and the town’s feelings for him are abundantly clear through their interviews. Though script polished, their words and sentiments are theirs as confirmed by locals of the town. He is described as a selfless member of the town engaging and supporting every aspect of it, from people to businesses, the church to the school, theatre to local kids sport teams; he was loved, is loved, and is missed. So what could make such a man put 4 bullets in the back of a little old lady?
[CUT TO: You tracking down the film and watching it. Hmm, it’s turned into a montage... I’ll wait.]
Ok, you’re back. I was right, huh? A great film with great performances and a story that you can’t wait to see where it will take you next.
I really enjoy when an actor steps out of the shadow of what they are known for, particularly comedic actors in a turn for the dramatic, and Jack Black is fantastic here. If that sort of thing is of interest to you, you must check out Punch Drunk Love and Reign Over Me both Adam Sandler films that floored me, or Awakenings with Robin Williams which devastated. If you want to see Jack Black stretch his chops some more check out Margot at the Wedding.
One thing that Jack Black does well is sing and he is in fine form here getting his Gospel on. Singing is a strong facet of Bernie’s character whether at a memorial or in the theatre, and it draws you to him. Black has maybe 8 or 9 songs he performs in part, all in context, and he is marvellous.
Despite a great performance, I won’t discuss Shirley MacClaine beyond noting the perfect casting.
Late in the piece marks the arrival of Mathew McConaughey as the prosecutor nipping at Bernie’s heels. McConaughey is very good, though he looked like he had cotton wool stuffed in his cheeks; not to a Brando degree, but I found it very distracting. [Update right before posting: Yes he did. Why? “...to add definition”. Personally, I could have done without it]
Bernie is a solid film with fine performances in all quarters. The nephew of Ms Nugent said apart from some insignificant details it is very accurate, which makes it land all the more. Highly recommended.
Totally embalmed!
This film is a curious thing but is entertainingly curious. Not only that it serves as a great showcase for Jack Black as he proves once again that his acting ability is far greater than he is given credit for.
Going entirely against type Black gives a truly believable performance as the kindly, popular, almost saccharine Tiede, yet he his performance manages to have a faint undercurrent of weirdness, which it would seem given the outcome of this story was justified.
One thing that is always difficult to produce is a balanced account of true events, particularly modern true events. In this case the film certainly lays it heart on its sleeve. Tiede was basically a wonderful human being and Nugent some sort of witch. Anyone with any inkling of how life can be must realise that life is far more nuanced than this. To be honest the film is so well acted, paced and directed that throughout you are rooting for the kindly Tiede and virtually booing for MacLaine’s ‘baddie’.
All the acting is at a standard you would expect from the cast MacLaine and McConaughey effortlessly flesh out characters that serve as black hats [no pun intended] to Jack Black’s Tiede. Certainly though it is Black who must take the plaudits with what must be one of his best performances to date. We all know he can play weird, wacky, slightly douche-bag, lovably ignoramuses with his eyes closed, but this button down, slightly uptight popular, personae must have come as breath of fresh air when Mr Black read the script and he took it on with gusto and I have to say he succeeded.
Another piece of A-list casting is the talking heads of the town’s people who actually knew Bernie Tiede if this method proves only one thing it proves that no matter how skilled an actor or director you are you cannot replicate real people talking about real events in their real voices.
Certainly it is a fascinating story but it is definitely told with certain point of view and despite the events I feel the final outcome was probably the correct one.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-04-20T17:03:45Z
[8.8/10] What I enjoy about Richard Linklater’s films at this particular cultural moment is that they are a tonic to the era of mystery boxes. In a period where seemingly every movie, T.V. show, or other story feels the need to tease the audience with hidden clues and shocking reveals, Linklater’s slice-of-life bona fides feel refreshingly up front. A true crime podcast might make the story of Bernie Tiede into one of overdramatic whodunnit with act breaks and tantalizing details. But in Linklater’s hands, a story of domestic murder and cover-up becomes almost amusingly mundane. That is a godsend.
Bernie relays the story of its title character, a gregarious and preternaturally well-liked member of the East Texas community of Carthage. Bernie earns the trust and affections (ambiguously romantic or platonic) of Marjoire Nugent, a local rich widow and renowned sourpus who managed to alienate everyone in town, including her own family members. What follows is a story of control, killing, cover-up, and courtroom drama that fascinates and entertains.
And yet, while the unique and at times cryptic details of the events that would lead Bernie to shoot his benefactor four times in the back and hide her body in a freezer should seemingly be the main event here, under Linklater’s watch, it almost feels like a sideshow. The real joy of this movie, and the director’s real focus, is on the colorful characters involved, the distinctive ecosystem of this region of Texas, and the denizens who populate it.
That comes through in the talking heads of real Carthage residents, which are an absolute highlight of the film. By mixing genuine residents, some of whom knew the players, into his dramatization, Linklater not only gives the piece a faux-documentary feel, but he captures the genuine wit and humor from the town’s gossip and pecking order and sense of rectitude beyond the laws of god or man. The “five regions of Texas” segment is hilarious and low-key iconic, but every talking head moment carries a certain charm, comic bent, and universality through specificity. Our towns and communities may not resemble Carthage, but seeing the same finger-pointing and sense of communal heroes and villains by acclimation rings true regardless of the thoroughly enjoyable East Texas packaging.
That sense of recognizable if outsized humanity comes through in the film’s “characters” as well. Jack Black soars as the eponymous central figure of the movie, giving arguably his best performance. The crux of this film, its guiding thesis of a sense of moral injustice, depends on Bernie Tiebe seeming like the most kind-hearted, friendly, accommodating, saintly individual who ever walked the earth, and somehow Black manages to exude that energy from start to finish. He makes this unusual, stealthily complicated man seem like the singing, do-gooding angel among men, finding notes of cheer, deception, compassion, and pathos in someone who feels too good to be real.
The same goes for Shirley MacLaine as Marjory and Matthew McConaughey as “Danny Buck”, a local prosecutor who puts Bernie behind bars. Just as the movie requires something close to divinity from Bernie to work, it also needs Marjorie to seem like the devil incarnate, and MacLaine is up to the challenge. The sense of her coldness, demandingness, and control sets the stage for the film’s grand, mortal act, makes it explicable, and flips the psychological sense of aggressor and victim. By the same token, McConaughhey does well in his “only sane man” role as a state attorney who is crusading for right legal justice, but harbors both some biases against Bernie and some blinders to a greater moral framework at play, while not being above some craftiness of his own.
That’s the only major knock against Bernie. Through its he-said-she-said conversations about who Bernie is, who Marjorie was, what led to the killing, and how Bernie and Danny should be treated in its aftermath, the movie gestures towards the moral complexities of this situation, and even honors them in places. But it’s also clear that Linklater, who would later house the real Bernie Tiede during an appeal, is in the tank for both his protagonist and his real life counterpart. As an entertaining yarn, free from the burdens of fidelity, Bernie is a delight. As an adaptation of a true story, one framed with clear good guys, bad guys, martyrs and oppressors, it feels more than a little slanted and arguably even irresponsible in places.
That is the double-edged sword of Linklater’s down-to-earth approach to filmmaking. In a more stylized retelling, one further away in time and psychological space from the genuine events in Carthage, Bernie would have that safe veneer of poetic license. But even with big name performers like Black, MacLaine, and McConaughey in tow, and a certain subtle sense of a heightened reality to everything, Linklater’s style makes the movie feel like he just dropped into East Texas and started the camera rolling.
But that straightforward approach benefits the film as a cinematic experience even if it throws some dust into the air as a fair description of real events. However much the movie falters in impartially relaying the true story, it soars in placing the viewer within this community, understanding its metes and bounds and third rails, and accounting for why a trial had to be moved because the accused was too well-liked for the state to have a reasonable shot at convicting him.
That’s what this movie is about. It’s as much about the community that witnessed these grisly events as it’s about the events themselves, and about the man so kind, so considerate, so unfailingly compassionate and friendly, that he could literally get away with murder. Linklater doesn't hide the ball at any point with that. From the film’s first moment to its last, he lets you know where his focus is and isn’t. It’s firmly on this impossibly nice mortician, the people who would sooner have him beatified than jailed, and this small but fascinating corner of the world that no mystery box could ever hope to contain.