Review of Bernie (2012) by Douglas B — 03 Nov 2012

The story of Bernie Tiede is one of those you read in a small town newspaper. In fact that's where this film originally was based on. The Texas Monthly chronicled the '96 murder of an 80 year old woman named Majorie who was a millionaire in Carthage, TX. She meets a nice young man named Bernie who worked for the church, but was a mortician and would treat dead bodies with total respect when it came time for their wakes. He was considered an artist in the way he treated the bodies and was a well like member of the Carthage community.

When Marjorie's husband dies, she calls on the services of Bernie. He does a great job and one of Bernie's extra acts of kindness when treating widows is to visit their homes after they've lost a loved one. He tries to connect with Marjorie, but she isn't having any of it. Among the community she is known to be a bitter, old lady with violent tendencies and the personality of a bitch from hell. So, why would Bernie want to get to know this woman? It was just Bernie's way. He's always trying to make friends with people.

Marjorie sees his act of kindness and allows Bernie into her life. It comes with a price however in the form of Marjorie's possessive nature and along with her mean spirited venom that would spew from her mouth. She wasn't a nice person. Miserable to the core and made others miserable as a result. One day, after all the stuff they've been through, Bernie decides to shoot her. It was bound to happen. When you treat someone like dirt for so long they'll either snap or leave. In Bernie's case, he snapped. Who can blame him?

The only problem, other than shooting Marjorie, was that Bernie kept it a secret making his that much more accountable. He confesses, but it doesn't serve him any hope since he's found guilt on the count of murder. He was a simple, likable man who showed his dark side.

Jack Black, hopefully, will be given an award for his performance. He was amazing and did a versatile job at playing the real life Bernie. It was really unlike anything else he's ever done and one of her best performances (aside from the one he did in 'School of Rock' which was also great). If you're looking for a true story perfectly brought to life look no further than 'Bernie'. It's like 'Fargo' except with no snow.