Bernie’s remain connected to a particular era of cinema. They also preserve a young Andrew McCarthy at a moment when his life was changing almost faster than he could process. What audiences could not see was the anxiety and alcohol dependence developing outside the carefully composed frames. What nobody could have seen was the writer, director, father, and sober man he would eventually become. Time supplied those chapters later.
McCarthy’s life also provides a useful reminder that public success and private well-being are not interchangeable. Someone can be professionally successful
