Part movie, part documentary, Bernie is
the story of Bernie Tiede, a Texan funeral director, and how it
changes when he meets Marjorie Nugent, the widow of a recently
deceased local man.
What first struck me was the casting of
Jack Black as the titular character, Bernie. When you see JB in a
movie, you automatically think there will be shenanigans, or at least
some childish humour. I sat there, waiting.
.
.
.
Waiting.
.
.
.
Waiting some more. Nothing. Yeah, there
was the obligatory JB playing JB, but this was much, much different.
It became clearer why after I had finished watching, but up until
then, it seemed quite dull and lacking in energy. The film's schtick,
was that the interlaced interviews are from real townsfolk who new
the real Bernie Tiede, before he ended up in prison. This was a very
clever idea that was pulled off well as I couldn't tell that they
weren't actors until I read about it in the film's trivia section. As
I knew nothing about this title until watching it, I was unaware that
he kills Marjorie until the moment in question. I had a theory that
something happens to him from the way he was referred to in the past
tense occasionally, but I thought that maybe he had died, or the
interviewees were all 'patients' of his that had passed on.
The film itself wasn't at all boring,
but it wasn't able to hold my concentration for the full 104 minutes,
I paused it once or twice to watch youtube videos or listen to
classical music. You know, the kind of things you do when you're
looking for a distraction. It's all personal taste, but the pace was
a little slow for me as it really came all on one level, not speeding
up and getting exciting, or slowing you down to let you think. It was
like a long, flat line across the middle of the page. Like I said,
with wacky old Jables as the lead, I expected there to be at least 1
hi-jinks happening, maybe even 4 whole hi-jinks if we were lucky, so
when a grand total of zero hi-jinks happened, I felt a little let
down. This might have been part of the reason why I didn't enjoy it
as much as others. I can understand that as a... well... not exactly
a mockumentary, but something similar I guess, it was trying to
imitate life in a small Texan town rather than Hollywood action, but
it needed something to keep me hanging on. As it stands, I felt like
I was watching Big Brother when they
are just sat on the couch doing nothing. I don't mean to keep slating
the film, but I found it hard to pull out any exciting scenes or
pieces of acting I really enjoyed. The actual actors, not the
interviewees, seemed to fit into the roles well enough, but once
again, nothing stellar. Aside from JB being cast where he shouldn't,
the only part I disagreed with was that of Marjorie's accountant,
Lloyd Hornbuckle. He seemed as though he had come straight from an
episode of Ugly Betty.
I
started writing this with such a positive air, but it seems to have
dissolved into moaning and whining. I really appreciated the new*
direction this film took, with the cutaways to the residents and felt
that it could have been a four-star production, but there were a few
too may things missing.
A good
effort, executed poorly. - 2 and a half coffins out of 5
*new
to me. It may have been done before, but I haven't seen it yet.
