Jack Black (Millenium Entertainment)

“You got to admit nobody could sing ‘Amazing Grace’ like Bernie could.”
–as told to Skip Hollandsworth in his Texas Monthly article, “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas.”

Bernie Tiede was a pillar of his community. A lay preacher and soloist in the church choir, he had a kind word for everybody in the small East Texas town of Carthage. He also shot an elderly widow in the back.

We meet him in his professional role as assistant funeral director (he would rather not be called a mortician). Before a classroom of squeamish students, Bernie (Jack Black) demonstrates the respectful preparation of a body. He carefully applies just enough makeup to make the deceased look alive, but not cartoonishly so. One can’t help but notice the ruddy shade of foundation applied to the corpse approximately matches that on Bernie’s face. Preparing a corpse is a lot like acting — you create just enough detail to form a living character, but not so much that you end up with a clown. This is the film’s opening argument in the case of Bernie Tiede, just a nice guy with a couple of secrets.

Director Richard Linklater based this tale of small town faith, crime, and sexuality on the true story of funeral director Bernie Tiede, who killed 81-yr old Marjorie Nugent in 1996. He co-wrote the script with Skip Hollandsworth, who wrote a Texas Monthly article about the killing. Linklater (Slacker, Dazed and Confused) is himself a Texan, and his vision of small town America seems genuine enough, with a mix of character actors and real townspeople in supporting roles. But the stars play stereotypes, from Shirley MacLaine’s mean dowager to fellow Texan Matthew McConaughey’s folksy district attorney. The worst offender is a performance that has earned the most praise.

Jack Black and Shirley MacLaine (Millenium Entertainment)

Jack Black is one of those actors whose personality overwhelms any character he may create. Where others see a finely hewn, brave performance, I just see Jack Black wearing festive shirts and very carefully pretending to be gay. It doesn’t help that, when Bernie sings in church, Black’s gospel vocals sometimes reveal hints of Tenacious D dramatic inflection.

Bernie is portrayed as a man who charmed a small town so much they would let him get away with murder. His story has great potential for both melodrama and social commentary. Is it about the banality of evil? A complacent community? The action in Linklater’s film is framed by interviews with real-life Carthaginians who talk about their affection for the real life Bernie. Sympathies for the defendant ran so high that the trial was moved fifty miles away because the state thought Tiede would be acquitted by his Carthage peers. But the town has mixed feelings about the film. District Attorney Buck Davidson finds it inappropriate to make a black comedy about a real murder. Others may hope the film attracts a macabre class of tourist. If only Billy Wilder were alive. Bernie is part fictionalized, part documentary, and entirely well-made, but the tone of its fictionalized elements put this uncomfortably close to mockumentary.

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Bernie
Directed by Richard Linklater
Written by Richard Linklater and Skip Hollandsworth
With Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey
Running time 104 minutes
Rated PG-13 for some violent images and brief strong language
Opens today at E Street, Bethesda Row, Shirlington and the Cinema Arts Theater.