About two minutes. That’s approximately how long it takes Where’d You Go, Bernadette to answer its titular question. The movie opens on (an admittedly beautiful scene of) Bernadette (Cate Blanchett) sitting on a kayak surrounded by ice and glaciers. The movie then jumps back a few weeks, showing daughter Bee (Emma Nelson) asking her parents (Blanchett and Billy Crudup as Elgin Branch) for a trip to Antarctica. Anyone paying attention can put two and two together and figure out what that opening scene meant. For a movie being described as part mystery, that immediate reveal certainly takes some wind out its sails.
The Antarctica trip also serves as the inciting incident for the story. Bernadette is anti-social, anxious, maybe even depressed. That’s nothing new for her, but as the trip gets closer, it starts to take its toll on Bernadette. She tries her best to put on a brave face for her husband and daughter, but they can sense something is off (as they’ve already been able to for quite some time).
After a couple incidents (including allowing landscaping work to be done that Bernadette knows will cause a mud slide to crash into a neighbor’s house), Elgin decides it’s time to take action. He speaks with a therapist about how they can best help Bernadette. There’s a bit more that comes with it, but this is the straw that breaks the camels back. Feeling trapped, Bernadette flees.
As Bernadette takes this time to hopefully find herself, Elgin and Bee struggle with how to find her, literally. It’s the split between these two competing story lines where the wheels really start to come off.
Undefined purpose
With the literal question answered so fast, the story then presents a more existential one. “Where’d you go?” may refer to questioning what happened to the old Bernadette. Bernadette used to work as a highly-regarded architect. She hasn’t worked in 20 years, instead focusing on her roles as a wife and mother.
It’s immediately evident that something (or many somethings) have gone a bit screwy in those two decades. Bernadette doesn’t get along with her neighbors, the other parents at Bee’s school, or really anybody other than Bee and Elgin. She’s a bit odd, quirky, eccentric; all in ways alert you to the fact that there’s something more going on, something lingering beneath the surface.
And this is where a decision should have been made: take the question posed by the movie’s title and focus on the literal or the figurative. Include both elements, sure, but clearly define a purpose and direction. Bernadette has three credited screenwriters (Richard Linklater, Holly Gent, and Vincent Palmo Jr) and it shows. It feels at times like they wrote their parts independent of each other and then simply mashed them all together.
Is this an adventure of a father and daughter trekking across the world to find their wife and mother? Is it telling the story of a once-successful career woman struggling to reclaim her identity? Or is it a family drama where everyone has become a bit disconnected, and they’re all fighting to find that closeness once again? The movie would like you to believe it’s all three. There’s a quote about football that goes, “If you have two quarterbacks, you don’t have one.” Unfortunately that sentiment applies a little too well here.
Wasted talent
Where’d You Go, Bernadette‘s faults can be somewhat mitigated by great acting. And Cate Blanchett is as great as they come. But even she can only do so much with the script she was given. It’s a similar to case to her role in 2018’s Ocean’s 8 – you have a great actor out-acting the story playing out on screen.
Kristen Wiig amounts to barely more than a walking cliché. She’s the nosy neighbor, the maybe-too-involved parent, the obsessed-with-the-school advocate, all while also having a troubled marriage and maybe not being as good of a parent as she thinks she is. It’s a character we’ve seen countless times over, with no new or interesting wrinkles.
The same can also be said for Billy Crudup, as the workaholic husband who his daughter complains isn’t around enough. He means well, but ultimately doesn’t know what he can do to help his wife. Yet again a character we’ve all seen time and again.
And how about poor Judy Greer, under-utilized once again. It’s inexplicable that she can’t seem to get any meatier roles these days. She kills it in everything she’s in, but is seemingly always relegated to a bit part or secondary character.
There is sweetness to be found
Where’d You Go, Bernadette‘s saving grace is the mother-daughter relationship between Bernadette and Bee (Emma Nelson). Blanchett and Nelson have undeniable chemistry, and that shines in their scenes together. At one point, Bee refers to her mother as her best friend, and that closeness is quite apparent.
Newcomer Nelson impressively holds her own against seasoned vet Blanchett. The scenes between the two only work if they both bring it. And they do, each and every time they’re together. They play off each other wonderfully, and bring some much-needed color to an otherwise bland story.
Missed potential
All the talent associated with this project combined with the popular source material should have produced a much better result. But by not defining its purpose, Where’d You Go, Bernadette relies on the performers to act their way through the story, rather than allowing the performance and story to work together as a singular unit. There was too much pressure on the cast with not enough script support.
But yes, it can still be fun to watch Cate Blanchett chew the scenery. And Emma Nelson provides a breath of fresh air in what is hopefully the start of a long, fantastic career. Unfortunately, those two factors alone are not enough to save Where’d You Go, Bernadette from being yet another forgettable adventure.
The Verdict: 4.7/10