Bernie

Richard Linklater

Drop Dead Gorgeous, interspersing interviews with real people and a mostly theatrical, superficial narrative that ostensibly acts out these interview findings. At times, the narrative devolves into camp mockery of Southern archetypes, finding humour in metaphors about possums and kissing cousins, which reinforces the seeming template critique, or analysis, of Bible belt beliefs, where class system jealousy and social performance prove more valuable – hypocritically – than upholding the Ten Commandments.

The overriding gag here is that the townsfolk were so pleased with Bernie's overall friendly disposition, generosity and propensity for musical theatre that they actually justified the murder of Marjorie by noting that she was a miserable bitch. It's an interesting perspective that reinforces the darkly comic tone of the film, mixing shocking, but amusing interviews with a narrative about a man whose self-serving motivations are masked by politeness.

Bernie never grasps the nature of its tone and structure, leaving the relationship between Bernie and Marjorie entirely on the surface, which only makes the amusingly candid nature of the interviews that much more intriguing. It almost seems like this particular cinematic experiment might have been better served up as a mildly satirical documentary.
(Alliance)
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