Bernie is an adaptation of the real life story of the sweetest man you never met. He is a kindly assistant funeral director who randomly buys gifts for people in his small Texas town and leads the choir in the church. Bernie takes it upon himself to befriend all the widows so they have someone to talk to. He becomes best friends with the nasty, aggressive, and demanding Marjorie, who slowly takes over his entire life. Someone's bound to snap in that relationship.
Writer/director Richard Linklater adapts Bernie from an article by Skip Hollandsworth profiling the case. He turns it into a very dark mockumentary about the people in town responding to Bernie and Marjorie's relationship. The film is a series of talking head interviews broken up with title cards like "Is Bernie Gay?" to guide the narrative. Each section features at least one dialogue scene of Bernie interacting with people in the town and a whole lot of montages of his strange habits.
The story works as well as it does because of Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine. Their relationship as Bernie and Marjorie feels real. For all the absurdity in this ripped from the headlines story, it takes Jack Black fully committing to a strange little character to make it feel real. Shirley MacLaine is responsible for a lot of the dark humor as Marjorie and she nails every withering glance. These two actors are so in sync that any major turn in the relationship plays out like an actual documentary film.
The other great asset of Bernie is the music. Specifically, Jack Black singing the music. Black is an accomplished musician with a strong tenor voice. He almost gets to sing more in the film than he speaks, performing hymns at funerals and church and directing/starring in the local community college's performances of Guys & Dolls and The Music Man. The music adds a charming sense of naivety to Bernie that makes the dark twists in the story more disturbing.
The tone of the film can be off-putting. The first thirty minutes or so seem to take joy in just mocking this town for being a religious part of Texas. They're all seem like perfectly nice people we're supposed to laugh at for saying foolish things.
It gets worse with Bernie. There are a number of scenes where it feels like Linklater's intent is to have us laugh at Bernie because he's effeminate. Jack Black commits to the role and the editing makes it seem like we're supposed to find everything from his posture to his piano playing a laugh riot. We're not dealing with a cartoon here. We're dealing with the real life story of a man who faced terrible hardships in his life because he was painted as the other with broad strokes. Some of this over the top point and laugh style is foreshadowing for the climax, but it's all too overblown.
Bernie is a great character study with some interesting tonal notes and strong acting. Come for Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine's masterclass in acting, stay for a great twist that really sticks the knife in you.
Rating: 6/10
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