Küçük kasaba dedikoduları Richard Linklater'ın Bernie'sindeki durumu karmaşık hale getiriyor

Deneysel bir on yılın sonunda yönetmen Richard Linklater , 90'lardan bu yana beyninde dolaşan bir hikayeye geri döndü. Skip Hollandsworth tarafından Texas Monthly için yazılan 1998 tarihli makale " Doğu Teksas'ın Bahçesinde Gece Yarısı ", Kartaca kasabasında çevredeki en nazik ve nazik adam olarak bilinen bir cenaze kaldırıcısını ve çok sevilmeyen 85 yaşındaki milyoner dul kadının hikâyesini anlatıyor. vuruldu ve dondurucuya tıkıldı. Linklater bu hikayeyi ele almadan önce sadece bir suç filmi yapmıştı: The Newton Boys , ancak Hollandsworth'un makalesindeki Yunan kasaba dedikodu korosunun ifadeleri sayfada Whataburger'de sırada anlatılıyormuş gibi çatırdadı.

Linklater'ın filmi Bernie nihayet 2011'de gösterime girecek ve yönetmenin geniş, eklektik filmografisindeki birkaç polisiye filmden biri. Linklater bu türe on yıldan fazla bir süre sonra , tahmin edebileceğiniz üzere Skip Hollandsworth'un başka bir Texas Monthly makalesine dayanan başka bir komedi  olan Hit Man ile geri dönecekti. Filmler hem ton hem de konu açısından birçok niteliği paylaşıyor. Her ikisi de bölümlendirmeyle, kaygan kimliklerle ve insanların birbirlerini gerçekten ne kadar iyi tanıdıklarıyla ilgileniyor. Ancak Hit Man'de olmayan şey dedikodudur ve olayı bu kadar karmaşık hale getiren de Bernie'nin geniş dünya görüşüdür .

Bernie, Jack Black'in cenaze müdür yardımcısı olarak gösterdiği performans (hala kariyerinin en yüksek seviyesi) nedeniyle değil, kasaba halkının onun hakkında ne düşündüğü yüzünden yaşıyor ve ölüyor. Linklater, açılış jeneriğinde Bernie'nin büyük bir sabır ve özenle bir kadavra hazırladığını gösteren net bir metafor kuruyor. Ağzını kapalı bir şekilde sınıfa "Acının trajik bir şekilde komediye dönüşmesine izin veremezsin" diyor. Kamera kesildiğinde Black, lateks eldivenlerini fırlatıp, izleyen bir grup hevesli cenazeciyi ortaya çıkarıyor. Sahnedeki bu Gomez Addams'a benzeyen adama ne diyorlar?

As Bernie, Black is all things to all people. He helps locals with taxes, directs school plays, and, when a funeral lacks eulogizers, he sings “Amazing Grace” better than anyone. Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine) is his inverse and the perfect noir victim. A wealthy widow murdered by her loyal mustachioed valet was even a plot on Mad Men two years later . But whatever Bernie’s intentions for Marjorie are muddied by perspectives.

Linklater loves a point of view, and he delivers in abundance with Bernie, offering perspectives by way of reenactments of the crime and talking head interviews from Carthage District Attorney Danny Buck (Matthew McConaughey) and the people of Carthage, some played by actors, some by actual residents. The townspeople praise Bernie’s kindness and willingness to go the extra mile for the bereaved. But early on, Linklater includes a scene where Bernie upsells customers on deluxe caskets with warranties, as if they will return a coffin. It’s a crucial scene that allows for a modicum of suspicion about his motives, priming us for Danny Buck’s position: Bernie is not like the rest of Carthage—he is an outsider.

Bernie isn’t a movie about solving a crime. We know Bernie did it. He confessed. The movie is about how the nicest guy in town could’ve done this and why some people refused, and still refuse, to believe it. The townspeople have their reasons, ranging from the reductive (he’s too “effeminate”) to excusatory (“It’s not as bad as people say it is. He only shot her four times, not five.”). Preachers in town encouraged their flock to pray for Bernie, who covered up a murder for nine months as he threw his victim’s money around town. Even that isn’t without its complications. As Bernie was paying off his neighbors’ cars, he was woefully behind on his own payments. “He was a shopaholic,” one townsperson diagnoses.

To accommodate these POVs, Linklater employs a mockumentary style. But the movie isn’t aiming for the faux-realism of This Is Spinal Tap; it’s attempting to muddy the truth of the situation, blending fact and fiction. By casting actual townspeople and local actors, Linklater imbues these interviews with an authentic charisma different from mannered Hollywood actors, which is why McConaughey’s sudden appearance is so jarring. After all these real people, we have an actor in costume, not a townsperson in their everyday clothes. Kudos to the casting department, because that’s what Danny Buck ends up being: Carthage’s sore thumb.

These “interviews” prevent the comedy from ever fully becoming a tragedy. For example, Sonny Carl Davis’ explanation of the map of Texas prepares us for their perspective: Folksy, funny, and deeply behind the Pine Curtain. The way he tosses off, “Of course, I forgot the Panhandle, and most people do,” is an excellent bit of regional commentary that communicates so much about this guy. Other lines from townspeople, like, “If her nose were any higher, she’d drown in a rainstorm,” show off their humor and values. As we’ll see, those values are unshakable.

Throughout the film, Danny Buck operates as the voice of reason, reminding the hungry patrons of Danny’s BBQ and Catfish (“You kill it, I’ll cook it”) that there’s no ambiguity. Bernie killed this woman. The audience knows this because Linklater showed it.

In the middle of the film, trading the bright East Texas sun for a chilly garage straight out of Fargo, Bernie casually, almost mindlessly, fires four rounds into Marjorie’s back. Again, reminding us that it wasn’t entirely without intent, editor Sandra Adair inserts a close-up of Marjorie annoyingly chewing her food, one of Bernie’s pet peeves, as he fires.

To the townspeople who do think Bernie killed her, it’s easy to explain: He snapped. Just as Hit Man’s Gary Johnson can suddenly transform into a thespian, Bernie could become a killer. However, keeping an old lady buried under chicken parts and ground beef in a deep freeze for nine months is hardly becoming for the gentlest man in town. Nevertheless, Bernie benefitted from the town’s opinion of Marjorie. With her gone, he could give his time (and her money) back to the community.

The townspeople are the most vital element of the case because it took leaving Carthage to get a conviction. “I had never heard of the state seeking a change of venue because the defendant was so well-liked that they couldn’t get a conviction,” says Bernie’s lawyer, Scrappy Holmes (Brady Coleman). “When I heard that the judge had actually agreed to move the trial, to give in to Danny Buck’s hare-brained request, my first thought was, ‘Oh shit, Bernie’s ox is in a ditch.’” Finally free of the spell Bernie cast upon Carthage, Buck succeeded.

Bernie ve Marjorie duymadığımız iki bakış açısı olduğu için onun hakkında kendi düşüncelerimizi oluşturabiliriz. İnsanların gülümsemesini her zaman görünür kılmak isteyen mükemmel bir şovmen olan Black, biraz geri çekilerek kasaba halkının fikirlerinin şifresi haline geliyor ve her iki tarafa da oynuyor. Hesapçı bir kötü aktör müydü, yoksa geçici olarak deli miydi? Daha da önemlisi, cinayet birine bakış açımızı değiştiremiyorsa ne değiştirebilir? Bernie'yi bu kadar eşsiz kılan da bu sorular . Linklater, kederin trajik bir şekilde komediye dönüşmesi gibi izleyiciyi kendisiyle çelişen bir görüşe sahip olmaya zorluyor. Tanıdığınız en iyi adam cinayet işleyebilir mi? Evet. Kartaca'da kimseye sormayın.