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Bernie (12A)

Bernie (12A)

Comedy, Crime, Drama

In small-town Texas, the local mortician strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow, though when he kills her, he goes to great lengths to create the illusion that she's alive.


The critical consensus

Linklater had an interesting story here, but unfortunately this work lurks towards the Fast Food Nation end of his oeuvre.

***(*)(*)Hannah McGill, The List, 18/04/2013

Neither a terribly dark comedy, nor much of a provocation, what we’re left with is basically a Coen Brothers picture with its teeth pulled.

***(*)(*)Siobhan Synnot, The Scotsman, 21/04/2013

It’s marvellously oddball stuff – another Linklater triumph in a wide-ranging, consistently interesting and unpredictable career.

****(*)Alistair Harkness, The Scotsman, 25/04/2013

Directed by Richard Linklater, this is a bizarre and intriguing tale but Bernie remains essentially unknowable and the picture lacks big laughs.

***(*)(*)Henry Fitzherbert, Daily Express, 25/04/2013

This droll and enjoyably morbid Texas folk tale (apparently based on a true story) is undermined by its faux-documentary structure.

***(*)(*)Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent, 25/04/2013

Oddball comedy-drama.

**(*)(*)(*)Chris Tookey, Daily Mail, 26/04/2013

Black's performance is a revelation: foregoing his usual repertoire of jiggling, tics and head-waggling craziness, Black ensures Tiede is a satirical creation of considerable substance. Really impressive.

****(*)Andrew Pulver, The Guardian, 25/04/2013

Linklater’s Fargo, it’s funny peculiar and funny ha ha, with Black a delight and Linklater in impressive control of superbly judged content and tone.

****(*)Angie Errigo, Empire Online, 26/04/2013

Black plays a blinder and the story itself is would-you-believe-it gold.

****(*)David Jenkins, Little White Lies, 25/04/2013

Amusing as these good ol' boys and gals are, none of them knows what went on between Tiede and Nugent behind closed doors, and Linklater seems unwilling to speculate.

Nicholas Barber, The Independent, 27/04/2013

Richard Linklater's account of a real-life small-town murder has a winning mix of comedy and social observation.

Philip French, The Observer, 28/04/2013


Features about Bernie (12A)

Richard Linklater on Bernie: sweet, sensitive and deadly

Philip Horne, The Telegraph, 21/04/2013

Jack Black on the art of being a clown

Matt Thrift, Little White Lies, 25/04/2013

Where and when?

General release. Check local listings for show times.

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