A good movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since I have a weak spot for Richard Linklater’s work, I was quite eager to check it out. Well, to be honest, I don’t think it is was really a great story after all but Richard Linklater sure made the most of it and delivered something quite entertaining. His first masterstroke was to focus so much on the people living in this small town in Texas. In fact, some actual residents of Carthage who knew the real Bernie Tiede and Marjorie Nugent appeared in the film providing commentary on the events and their commentary was just pure comedic gold. And, of course, I was also really amazed by Jack Black who gave here easily his best performance so far. Indeed, Black always seemed to be a one-trick pony but, here, he completey disappeared to become Bernie Tiede and the end-result was just quite impressive. Eventually, the thing that bothered me the most was that Bernie’s motivation was never clearly explained. Indeed, the guy was apparently really popular among the old ladies so why on Earth would he choose Marjorie Nugent who was apparently terribly awful to everyone? The fact that she was the richest woman in town made it all the more suspicious. Furthermore, even though they tried to convince the viewers that Danny Buck, played by a pitch-perfect Matthew McConaughey, was really mean, manipulative and ambitious, in fact, I actually agreed with him when he said that Bernie was a liar, a coward and a backshooter. I mean, come on, the guy shot an old lady 4 times in the back, put her 9 months in a freezer and spent in the mean time 600 000 dollars of her money. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still pretty good and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Richard Linklater’s work.