“Where'd You Go, Bernadette” is a Movie to See

Catch “Where'd You Go, Bernadette” before it disappears.

Films like this generally don’t last long in theaters. I was going to say, little films like this, but “Where'd You Go, Bernadette” is not so little. There are some amazing scenes filmed in Seattle and the Antarctic.

But the scenery is not what this movie is about.

It is about Cate Blanchett, one of our finest actresses, and the performance she turns in as Bernadette Fox.

Bernadette, a once rising star and award winning architect of modern structures, quit the designing of buildings and has lived in near seclusion in Seattle for two decades with her husband, a wildly successful computer game creator whose company was bought by Microsoft, and her teenage daughter.

Why did Bernadette quit? Why is she so anti-social? Why is she becoming a problem to her family and neighbors? That is the story, and to add any spoilers to this post would be to spoil the joy of watching Bernadette work through it all.

“Where'd You Go, Bernadette” was directed and co-written by Richard Linklater, someone whose films I will always go out of my way to see. The movie is based on a 2012 book of the same title by Maria Semple. Billy Crudup plays Bernadette’s husband, and Emma Nelson plays her daughter. Also in the cast are Laurence Fishburne as a former colleague, and Kristen Wiig as her neighbor.

The beautiful cinematography was by Shane F. Kelly (who also photographed one of my all-time favorite documentaries, “Tim’s Vermeer”).