I recently heard about Bernieand the premise caught my attention. Based on a true story from the mid 1990’s, Bernie is beloved member of the community and works as the local mortitan. Living and working in a small Texas town, everyone knows everyone. Bernie is seen all over the place. He volunteers all over the place, he’s a friend to everyone and exceptianal at his job. A real people person. Bernie befriends a wealthy widower (Marjorie Nugent) that the whole town hates; she’s a real battle ax that has no friends and no family that talks to her. When a crime is committed against Mrs. Nugent and the finger gets pointed at Bernie, no one in town can believe it.

Bernie is played brilliantly by Jack Black. I know, that’s a weird sentence to read. He’s real hit and miss to me, for every role I like him in, he’s got 4 or 5 stinkers. Something clicks with this character for him, I really forgot I was watching Jack Black. The surrounding cast is equally good and an interesting documentary take was used in this movie. Instead of casting actors for the townsfolk interviews, they used the actual townsfolk. None of them interact with Jack Black on screen, just talk to the camera giving and interview talking about Bernie. That really helps sell Black as Bernie to me. It’s a really fascinating story too, one where a good man gets into serious trouble. It’s black comedy so the subject matter is very serious, but I felt it was handled really well. It’s a story you won’t soon forget. Highly recommended.