Richard Linklater, fast becoming Soderbergh’s genre-defying
replacement, directs with tight, small-scale and small-town panache as the talking
head residents of Carthage, Tx act as our Greek chorus through this story of a communities’
unusual response to a primo facia heinous crime. It’s a sublime device that
allows for a cavalcade of interesting characters and voices without long individual
exposition; and some great one-liners.
In a revelatory performance Jack Black both turns and tones
it down as god-fearing community loving assistant
funeral director Bernie, who befriends toxic widow Marjorie (Shirley
MacLaine). Somewhere along the line suspicion of the motives of Bernie’s
friendship, and of his own proclivities, are lost as the force of his personality
overwhelms the community; so that when tragedy does occur the ubiquitous Matthew
McConaughey slaps his thigh and shakes his head with his now usual aplomb as
the District Attorney bemused by the local’s support for the self-confessed
wrong doer – and thus connives ways of ensuring a conviction.
Bernie is a study of the American small-town psyche and
acceptance, where ‘good’ evil trumps just plain old ‘evil’ evil, personality
ultimately overcomes prejudice, and where, whatever happens locally, the people
in the next county will always be held in contempt and ridicule. As contrary and unsettling as many of these people
are, our entertaining time in their company flies past.
That this is based on a true story, as evidenced in the end
credit sequence, adds an extra resonance to the contradictory nature of the
human response to right and wrong.
8/10
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