WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE
Richard Linklater directed this?
Yes, the same person who brought us “Boyhood,” “Before Sunrise” and “Everybody Wants Some!!” has turned “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” — Maria Semple’s popular, funny, satirical novel — into common family schmaltz. His usual ability to balance warm and weird has apparently gone on break.
Bernadette (Cate Blanchett) is an eccentric who looks like Edna Mode from “The Incredibles” and speaks in overly witty quips. She lives as a semi-recluse in a dilapidated house on a hill in Seattle with her softwaredeveloper husband (Billy Crudup) and precocious teen daughter Bee (Emma Nelson). Everybody hates Bernadette, but she DGAF.
She mocks the prim and proper neighborhood women (Kristen Wiig plays one) as “gnats,” and she has an Internet personal assistant in India whom she uses to avoid in-person interactions.
After Bee begs for a family trip to Antarctica and the parents relent, Bernadette’s already-mad life plunges further into crazytown. Her hubby starts to hate her and, in a silly scene, the FBI gets involved. More intriguing though are the glimpses into her past existence as a prominent architect and her steady descent into paranoia and anxiety.
Blanchett, while highly watchable, is a living, breathing Looney Tune here. Rare is the role that sees her exhibit any observably human characteristics anymore, and batty Berny is no different.
The enormity of this person is hammered home in the final third of the movie, which features a family journey in which the plot goes from cutesy to spineless. Crudup and Nelson try hard, but the teary moments, powerful-ish messages and sardonic humor go together like cheesecake and ketchup.
Linklater just can’t get the tone right. “Bernadette” is supposed to skewer the norms of family, suburban life and motherhood. While Bernadette should be a creature out of a Wes Anderson film, Blanchett and her director opt for “The Addams Family.” Nothing about it works.
Where will “Bernadette” go? Probably the Target bargain bin.
Running time: 130 minutes. Rated PG-13 (some strong language and drug material). Now playing.