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Bernie
- Director: Richard Linklater
- Writer: Skip Hollandsworth
- Producer: Michael Bassick; William T. Conway
CGiii Comment
Jack Black, surprisingly, gives an impressive, versatile performance...as an adored cissy (or an evil, calculating actor) in small-town America where that small-town mentality collides with the reality of the law.
As a comment of community and society as a whole - it works well - neither is it scathing nor preachy...rather, it's crisp and wry and delivered by a string of sweetly sculpted eccentrics.
Linklater has demonstrated a degree of craftsmanship for a story that required a fine balance - between the comedy and the drama - a job well done.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
We meet Bernie Tiede (1958- ), a chubby undertaker, who takes pride in his work. He's a Gospel-singing tenor. In a series of interviews with townspeople, mixed with flashbacks, we follow Bernie: he arrives in Carthage, Texas (pop. 7,000), where old ladies adore him; he befriends a wealthy, mean-spirited widow named Marjorie Nugent; they become companions in both daily routines and expensive vacations. Among those interviewed, only her stockbroker and Danny Buck, the local district attorney, are unsympathetic toward the sunny, sometimes saccharine Bernie. Marjorie changes from sour and alone to happy with Bernie; then she gets possessive. What will sweet Bernie do?
Cast & Characters
Jack Black as Bernie Tiede;
Shirley MacLaine as Marjorie Nugent;
Matthew McConaughey as Danny Buck;
Brady Coleman as Scrappy Holmes;
Richard Robichaux as Lloyd Hornbuckle;
Rick Dial as Don Leggett;
Brandon Smith as Sheriff Huckabee;
Larry Jack Dotson as Rev. Woodard;
Merrilee McCommas as Molly;
Mathew Greer as Carl