Bernie (***)

In the stranger-than-fiction category comes this small-town tale. Jack Black plays the title character, an assistant funeral director beloved in his adopted hometown of Jasper, Texas. Shirley MacLaine plays the wealthy widow, beloved by no one except Bernie, who is nonetheless driven to a desperate act. With the help of Skip Hollandsworth, whose Texas Monthly article inspired the movie and who gets co-screenwriting credit, Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, Tape, Fast Food Nation) has fashioned Bernie’s story into something like a docudrama. A few dozen actual townspeople appear in the movie in interview segments. (Wait for the ending credits for a glimpse of the real Bernie talking to Jack Black.) It would have been easy to make this into a straight comedy, or give the narrative an air of condescension, but Linklater simply presents the story as it happened, with commentary. It’s a pretty good yarn.

IMDb link

viewed 6/14/12 7:35 at Ritz 5 and reviewed 6/14/12