WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S

US, 1989, 97 minutes, Colour.
Andrew Mc Carthy, Jonathan Silverman, Catherine Mary Stewart, Terry Kiser.
Directed by Ted Kotcheff.

Weekend at Bernie's was made by the serious film director Ted Kotcheff (Wake in Fright, Winter People). However, he made the comedy Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe and there are comic sequences in many films, for example North Dallas 40.

This film is a variation on the Trouble With Harry theme - the presence of a corpse. Two young New York yuppies find themselves entangled in mob intrigues and the targets for murder. However, Bernie, who wants to murder them, is killed himself. They decide to pretend that he is alive during the weekend and the partying. Andrew Mc Carthy (seemingly miscast) and Jonathan Silverman (Travelling Man, Brighton Beach Memoirs) are the two young men.

While the material is fairly obvious and takes a rather long time to warm up, there are some amusing sequences. It led to a very moderate sequel.

1.Popular comedy, yuppies, the business world, black comedy and death?

2.New York locations, the island, the affluent world? Comedy and special effects, editing? Musical score?

3.The title and its ironies?

4.Larry and Richard, the odd couple, New York settings, getting ready for work, one late, the other punctual, their work on computers, the discovery of the mistake, the hot roof scene? Appointment with Bernie, impressed by him, the promise of the weekend?

5.Larry and his casual style? Richard and his precision? Shyness with Gwen, Larry forcing him to talk to her? Meeting her, the elevator, going out, the crowd, taking her home, his lies, his father? Meeting her at Bernie's? Her antagonism towards him?

6.Bernie and his style, vanity? The financial error? The meal, Paulie and the mob boss, the girlfriend? His plan to kill the two boys? Bernie and his plan, the letter, typing it? Paulie and the commission to kill him? Paulie and the initial murder, thinking that he saw him alive, strangling him, finally shooting him - and going mad when he was caught?

7.Bernie and his presence, the parties, people making deals with him, the drugs, the boys getting him to wave, the devices to indicate that he was alive, the glasses, going for rides, throwing him over the balcony, the little boy burying him, on the boat, being killed so often - and the joke at the end?

8.Larry and Richard, their characters, their complementarity, going on the holiday, the discovery of the death, the party, ringing the police, their decisions, Gwen and trying to tell her the truth, interaction with the guests, trying to cope, the phone call and the reality, trying to keeping Bernie to seem alive, the boy burying him, on the boat, the confrontation with the workers and putting them in the cupboard, Paulie and the shooting attempt? Heroes? Young yuppies?

9.Gwen, attractive, at work, the date, Richard and his lies, at the party, the truth, at the end?

10.The world of criminals, the meal, the girlfriend, the attempted murders?

11.The guests and their lifestyle, the partying?

12.The comedy with the corpse? The basic idea, the comic routines?