Richard Linklater's **Bernie **is already shaping up to be a welcome addition to the canon of odd-couple black comedies that includes Harold And Maude, **Planes, Trains And Automobiles **and, to a lesser extent, Throw Momma From The Train.
The cranky 'momma' character here is a wealthy widow played by the great Shirley MacLaine. As the movie's new trailer demonstrates, she is definitely *not *channelling The Apartment's Fran Kubelik in this one.
Perhaps surprisingly, the movie is based on a real-life incident that was originally reported in *Texas Monthly *magazine. Black, who reunites with his old **School Of Rock **director, is Bernie, a man whose innate loveliness is tested to its very limits (and beyond) by Marjorie's incessant needling, carping and nagging.
The consequences leave Black with a massive windfall and curious D.A. Matthew McConaughey with some detective work to do.
Linklater fans have a double dose of the director to look forward to. Before Midnight, the concluding chapter of cinema's ultimate will-they/won't-they saga, arrives on our screens on June 21. Bernie, meanwhile, comes to a cinema near us on April 26.
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