Film review: Bernie

“What you’re fixin’ to see is a true story,” a title card tells us right at the outset of the 2011 film Bernie. The events may be strange, and the presentation of the material is certainly tongue-in-cheek, but the story is utterly believable, which is saying something given the film’s main character is played by actor Jack Black.

His role is that of Bernie Tiede, a happy-go-lucky, charming and very sociable mortician – he prefers the title “funeral director” – whose main goal in life is to make the dead presentable to the living. He is also a smart businessman, who knows how to sell a casket to a potential client, even when that client is as stingy as a miser, by playing to the sense of self-worth either of the client or of a loved one who can make a more compelling case for buying a luxury casket.

Bernie bursts out of the gate with great energy and winning creativity. Filmed as a kind of documentary, with many interviews conducted with the townspeople, the location is cleverly sketched out thanks to one elderly gentleman who explains how varied the state of Texas is, with the help of some humorous animation in the other half of the frame.

For the full review, please visit The Prague Post

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