BERNIE is the latest film from Richard Linklater, starring Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and Shirley MacLaine. The film is a true story about… well, it’s about Bernie. Bernie (Jack Black) is a mortician from a small, red-neck town in Texas. He becomes good friends with a wealthy widow (Shirley MacLaine) after he conducts the funeral service for her husband. The relationship between Bernie and the (unnamed) widow becomes unbearable by both parties and Bernie ends up killing her. Bernie then attempts to cover it up by making the rest of the community believe she is still alive. This not a spoiler as this is basically what the whole film revolves around. It’s “Weekend with Bernie” in reverse. This time Bernie does the killing. Not really, but kind of.
It was weird seeing this film in Texas. Mostly because it got a HUGE reaction to every Texas joke, most of them seemed undeserved. Richard Linklater is from Austin and is pretty much responsible for the booming film scene here, and even partially responsible for SXSW altogether (as Janet Pierson noted in the Q&A). Linklater, much like Soderbergh, is a filmmaker that has earned his stripes and is not afraid to diversify and explore various different genres. Going into this film I didn’t quite know what to expect, just that it had a fairly good cast, was a Linklater film, was based off a true story, and was a dark comedy. However, that was more than enough for me to be interested.
The film is told in a mockumentary style that is at first amusing, but quickly becomes annoying. It’s like the whole time you’re waiting for the film to start. At times it feels like you are primarily just watching a series of fake interviews. The casting and acting wasn’t the problem, it was more the structure. The continuous interviews with town folk is monotonous and boring and you just want to get back to the story.
BERNIE has its funny moments, including many of the one-liners in the interviews, and Jack Black’s performance is well-rounded and well-executed, but it just felt like the film ended before it ever really started, and not in a good way. The actual true story of BERNIE is fascinating and darkly comical. Unfortunately, it just never felt like the film really found its tone. It felt very disconnected from its audience despite the Texas crowd roaring in laughter every time there was a joke referencing Texas, or McConaughey (known Texan) popped up in a scene. It seemed like Linklater just made this film real quick on his 0ff-time and got a couple of his buddies together (that he had previously worked with in other films) and said “let’s do this!” I was underwhelmed and had hoped for more, even though I came in with zero expectations.
