WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE
****
Director: Richard Linklater
Screenwriters: Richard Linklater, Holly Gent and Vince Palmo, based on the eponymous novel by Maria Semple.
Principal cast:
Cate Blanchett
Billy Crudup
Emma Nelson
Kristen Wiig
Zoë Chao
Laurence Fishburne
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 109 mins.
Australian release date: 16 July 2020.
The last film of director Richard Linklater was 2018’s Last Flag Flying, whose source material was a novel by Darryl Ponicsan. Now, with Where’d You Go, Bernadette, he has once again taken a novel as his point of departure, this one by Maria Semple. And it is certainly a departure from her book. The protagonist, Bernadette Fox, is missing from large tracts of the written work, whereas she is front and centre for most of the film. When queried about the reason for this change, Linklater had only one explanation - Cate Blanchett. And it’s true, Blanchett as Bernadette carries the film so if you have trouble with her performance or the character, as some of my fellow critics did, you’ll have trouble with Linklater’s movie. I have a theory about this: Bernadette is a misanthrope who has pretty much withdrawn from society and she has a fairly low opinion of her fellow man. If you find her difficult, you may well have a problem with Blanchett’s portrayal of her. If, like me, you agree with many of her views, you will probably thoroughly enjoy spending time in her company. I sure did.
Bernadette was a gifted architect in L.A., an award-winner destined for great things, when she met and married Elgie (Billy Crudup), a talented animator and software developer. When Elgie created an animation program with broader uses, it was snapped up by Microsoft and the couple moved to Seattle, the company’s headquarters. There they gave birth to a baby girl, Balakrishna aka ‘Bee’ (newcomer Emma Nelson), and Bernadette devoted herself to raising the child. When we first meet the happy family, Bee is a clever 15-year-old who has passed her school year with excellent grades. As a reward, she asks her parents if the three of them can go on a trip to Antarctica, a place she is dying to visit. Bernadette and Elgie reluctantly agree and plans are made, but as the day of departure approaches Bernadette’s behaviour becomes increasingly bizarre. Her battles with her prissy neighbour Audrey (Kristen Wiig) are more and more out of control, she takes a cocktail of prescription drugs and orders all her everyday requirements through ‘Manjula’, an online assistant in an Indian call-centre. Self-isolated, she has no friends (saying that, “Popularity is overrated”), her only real friend being Bee, so she has no one in whom to confide and can’t, or won’t, open up to Elgie. Increasingly worried, he tries to force her to get help but she is horrified at his betrayal and vanishes from the family’s life, thus leading us to the search that the film’s title alludes to.
It may not sound like it but Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a comedy and, whenever Blanchett is on screen, it’s very funny. She is extraordinary in the role and was nominated in the 2020 Golden Globes in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy category (Awkwafina won for The Farewell). The actress had read the book and was very keen to sink her teeth into the character. “Of course I identify with Bernadette,” says Blanchett. “The hard thing as an actor is that you have to develop a relatively thick skin, because your failures are very public, but you also don't want to create an artifice between you and the camera or you and the audience or between you and the other people that you're working with. You have to be open all the time. And if you've had one or two what are perceived to be successes, you feel like there's expectation around what you do. I think that's something that I can relate to in Bernadette, having won [a major architecture award] and having built two exceptional, unique buildings, there's a growing sense of expectation in what she's going to do next, and what she does next is nothing. So it's easier to disappear, but very hard to re-emerge.”
Linklater’s movie is very much about one woman’s struggle as an individual and the interior and exterior journeys she takes to find herself, but it’s also the story of a family and the relationship between a fiercely close mother and daughter. As such, Where’d You Go, Bernadette may not be a film for everyone, nor even one of the director’s best, but it will definitely appeal to the misanthropes of the world.
Screenwriters: Richard Linklater, Holly Gent and Vince Palmo, based on the eponymous novel by Maria Semple.
Principal cast:
Cate Blanchett
Billy Crudup
Emma Nelson
Kristen Wiig
Zoë Chao
Laurence Fishburne
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 109 mins.
Australian release date: 16 July 2020.
The last film of director Richard Linklater was 2018’s Last Flag Flying, whose source material was a novel by Darryl Ponicsan. Now, with Where’d You Go, Bernadette, he has once again taken a novel as his point of departure, this one by Maria Semple. And it is certainly a departure from her book. The protagonist, Bernadette Fox, is missing from large tracts of the written work, whereas she is front and centre for most of the film. When queried about the reason for this change, Linklater had only one explanation - Cate Blanchett. And it’s true, Blanchett as Bernadette carries the film so if you have trouble with her performance or the character, as some of my fellow critics did, you’ll have trouble with Linklater’s movie. I have a theory about this: Bernadette is a misanthrope who has pretty much withdrawn from society and she has a fairly low opinion of her fellow man. If you find her difficult, you may well have a problem with Blanchett’s portrayal of her. If, like me, you agree with many of her views, you will probably thoroughly enjoy spending time in her company. I sure did.
Bernadette was a gifted architect in L.A., an award-winner destined for great things, when she met and married Elgie (Billy Crudup), a talented animator and software developer. When Elgie created an animation program with broader uses, it was snapped up by Microsoft and the couple moved to Seattle, the company’s headquarters. There they gave birth to a baby girl, Balakrishna aka ‘Bee’ (newcomer Emma Nelson), and Bernadette devoted herself to raising the child. When we first meet the happy family, Bee is a clever 15-year-old who has passed her school year with excellent grades. As a reward, she asks her parents if the three of them can go on a trip to Antarctica, a place she is dying to visit. Bernadette and Elgie reluctantly agree and plans are made, but as the day of departure approaches Bernadette’s behaviour becomes increasingly bizarre. Her battles with her prissy neighbour Audrey (Kristen Wiig) are more and more out of control, she takes a cocktail of prescription drugs and orders all her everyday requirements through ‘Manjula’, an online assistant in an Indian call-centre. Self-isolated, she has no friends (saying that, “Popularity is overrated”), her only real friend being Bee, so she has no one in whom to confide and can’t, or won’t, open up to Elgie. Increasingly worried, he tries to force her to get help but she is horrified at his betrayal and vanishes from the family’s life, thus leading us to the search that the film’s title alludes to.
It may not sound like it but Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a comedy and, whenever Blanchett is on screen, it’s very funny. She is extraordinary in the role and was nominated in the 2020 Golden Globes in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy category (Awkwafina won for The Farewell). The actress had read the book and was very keen to sink her teeth into the character. “Of course I identify with Bernadette,” says Blanchett. “The hard thing as an actor is that you have to develop a relatively thick skin, because your failures are very public, but you also don't want to create an artifice between you and the camera or you and the audience or between you and the other people that you're working with. You have to be open all the time. And if you've had one or two what are perceived to be successes, you feel like there's expectation around what you do. I think that's something that I can relate to in Bernadette, having won [a major architecture award] and having built two exceptional, unique buildings, there's a growing sense of expectation in what she's going to do next, and what she does next is nothing. So it's easier to disappear, but very hard to re-emerge.”
Linklater’s movie is very much about one woman’s struggle as an individual and the interior and exterior journeys she takes to find herself, but it’s also the story of a family and the relationship between a fiercely close mother and daughter. As such, Where’d You Go, Bernadette may not be a film for everyone, nor even one of the director’s best, but it will definitely appeal to the misanthropes of the world.