Classic Movie Review: Bernie (2011)

Director Richard Linklater is known for making films whose production and style have pushed the boundary in terms of the filmmaking process. His first film Slacker was the day in the life of a city, choosing not to focus on any story or characters. His latest film Boyhood was a triumph that took twelve years to make. However, this gem from 2011 is undoubtedly his best film.

Bernie Tiede (Jack Black) is the local assistant funeral director in the town of Carthage, Texas. He is extremely well liked by the whole community and tries his best to please everyone. After the death of her husband, Bernie meets Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine), who is despised by everyone in the town for her horrible demeanour. But Bernie takes a liking to Majrorie, although she begins to get under his skin too, and he murders her. After a while District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson (Matthew McConaughey) begins to suspect foul play and looks into Marjorie's disappearance.

What makes this movie so striking is the style in which it is delivered. The film is set up as mockumentary with interviews from the townfolk about the relationship between Bernie and Marjorie. This makes the movie fun and lighthearted as they each give their two cents. That is until you learn that this movie is not at all a fictional story, but is indeed based on the true muder of Nugent in 1996 at the hands of Tiede. And some of the townsfolk being interviewed in the film are actual townsfolk who knew the couple. This then turns the film into quite a black tragicomedy, as these people aren't talking about the Jack Black/Shirley MacLaine versions of the characters but the actual people who existed.

The reason that this movie is so funny instead of being an extremely sad and sobering film is due to Jack Black's extremely understated performance. This isn't his stereotypical stoner that we've seen throughout the majority of his career (High Fidelity, School of Rock, Tenacious D), but a rather downplayed, incredibly effeminate man. The laughs come more from Black's incredibly different performance than what we are used to.

Shirley MacLaine's Nugent is a truly horrible person, but somehow I couldn't help liking her at some parts of this film, but maybe that's just because I am a fan of her regardless. Matthew McConaughey is hilarious as the cowboy DA and I feel like it is his character Wooderson from Dazed & Confused grew up and sorted out his life (this would actually really work as a fan theory because the timelines and locations match up perfectly). The supporting cast of Brady Coleman, Richard Robichaux and Rick Dial give the film authenticity. Also McConaughey's mum Kay has a splendid little role and you surely won't miss her.

This movie is a tight little package that is quite fun and refreshing and I'm sure would have been a fun little project for Linklater in between his bigger ones. The closing video of Jack Black talking to and being enthralled by the real Tiede is a fantastic little touch.

Elsa & Fred

After a very delayed release, Michael Radford's romantic comedy Elsa & Fred has made it here to Australia. The film stars two giants of cinema, Shirley Maclaine and Christopher Plummer in the titular roles. But with a cheesy love-story about an elderly couple, this may be a case of wasted talent.

Set in New Orleans (although you'd never know it), Elsa & Fred follows Elsa (Shirley Maclaine) and Fred (Christopher Plummer), two elderly residents in an apartment building that are opposites in every possible way. Fred is a recent widow and has been forced to move by his daughter, Lydia (Marcia Gay Harden), he's bitter and takes a morbid view on life. Elsa, who's next door, often seems to live in her own dreamy romantic state. She consistently lies to paint a better picture of herself, and dreams of Rome, taking the persona of Anita Ekberg in the film La Dolce Vita. After what seems like an incredibly short period of time, these two opposites attract (*spoiler alert* if you haven't seen the poster.)

This is one of the corniest movies I've ever had to sit through. It tells a story that's been told a thousand times before, the elderly couple hitting it off, opposites attracting etc, and it's been told better before. Clearly I'm not the intended audience, but similar films like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel series manage to pitch down to a broader audience. The film is a remake of a Spanish-Argentine film of the same name, perhaps it's better, I don't know. They try to draw attention away from the clichés by subverting the stereotypes to make it more interesting. Look at Elsa, she's an eccentric elderly woman who listens to rap music, how original! Give me a break, you can feel the manipulation. The climax of Elsa & Fred I actually quite liked, but it's still extremely corny. The romantic story is a sweet premise but the delivery is appalling. At one point in the film, Elsa's artistic son unveils a painting that he calls "explosion of pain". Watching the film is not far off.

There are a lot of well-established actors attached to this feature. Not the least of whom, Shirley Maclaine and Christopher Plummer. I must say, they do extraordinarily well for the content they're provided with. But this pales in comparison to many of the memorable films they've starred in over the years. Marcia Gay Harden is one of those incredible talents who sadly gets underused in a lot of films, and once again she is here. Chris Noth, Scott Bakula and James Brolin are all similarly talented but they bring about as much to the story as their equivalent cardboard cut-outs would. All of the great talent here push it as far as the material will allow, unfortunately it's just not very much.

The message of Elsa and Fred is that 'It's never too late'. Unfortunately, if you've entered the cinema for this one, it already is.