‘Bernie’: the Jack Black performance Roger Ebert called “miraculous”
Roger Ebert wasn’t an automatic Jack Black fan. It wasn’t that he disliked comedy, it was that he tended to like movies that were either heartfelt or highly stylised. Comedians like Black and Jim Carrey, whose larger-than-life performance styles often come across as grandstanding rather than acting, were not usually to his liking.
However, Ebert was also open-minded, and on several occasions, he gave credit where credit was due. He may have detested Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, but he raved about The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Unlike Carrey, Black has hardly ever struck out into dramatic territory, leaving the critic to conclude that Saving Silverman, Nacho Libre, and Year One were the extent of his talents.
Then, a film appeared out of the mists of Hollywood that completely transformed how Ebert felt about the comedian. With one performance, Black won him over and demonstrated that he’d been hiding even more talent than even his most passionate fans could have suspected.
The film was Richard Linklater’s Bernie. Released in 2011, it chronicles the true story of undertaker Bernie Tiede in a small town in Texas who becomes the companion of a reviled ageing heiress (Shirley MacLaine). When her body turns up in one of his freezers, he is the prime suspect, but the case is complicated by the fact that he is a pillar of the community who is known for his generosity and gentleness.
“I had to forget what I knew about Black,” Ebert wrote in his review. “He creates this character out of thin air, it’s like nothing he’s done before, and it proves that an actor can be a miraculous thing in the right role.”
As Bernie, Black is indeed on a whole new level as a performer. Instead of the wild energy that he often brings to roles, he exudes gentleness and Southern charm, creating a character who is both welcoming and something of an enigma. Even opposite MacLaine, a larger-than-life performer in her own right, he more than holds his own, stealing every scene despite playing a much more soft-spoken character.
Ebert wasn’t the only one to heap Black with praise. The film got rave reviews across the board, particularly for its warm, offbeat tone and Linklater’s direction, but it was Black who was the focus of the conversation. He earned a Golden Globe nomination for the performance, but was somehow overlooked when it came to the Oscars.
For Ebert, the film was a triumph for Linklater, but for one specific reason. “Richard Linklater has made all kinds of movies, most of them very good,” he wrote. “Why did he make Bernie? I suspect he read the magazine article and knew it was a natural movie. Anyone could have seen that. His genius was to see Jack Black as Bernie Tiede.”
Sadly, Black has yet to take another role as nuanced as the one he got in Bernie. Instead, he’s gone back to his usual fare of broad comedies and voice acting in animated films. That talent is clearly still there though, and hopefully, he’ll circle back around to it at some point.
