‘ BERNADETTE’ WENT TO MUNHALL
‘ Where’d You Go, Bernadette’ trips over its uneven story
Bernadette Fox has “grown accustomed to the way she is.”
This is not good. Bernadette, played by Cate Blanchett in director Richard Linklater’s “Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” can’t sleep at night, suffers from social anxiety, fights with the other moms in their upscale Seattle neighborhood and just plain hates being around people.
No wonder her family is concerned.
With a 2017 shoot in Pittsburgh standing in for the Great Northwest, “Where’d You Go Bernadette” tackles the tale of an architectural genius who has subjugated her own creative passions for years in order to be mother and best friend to her middle school- age daughter, Bee.
She and her husband, Elgie ( Billy Crudup), a high- tech wizard who works at Microsoft, have grown apart. So much so that in Maria Semple’s 2012 book of the same name, Elgie has a one- night stand, and a child, with his new assistant. This has been excised from the film, which is a shame because truly, the plot could have used a bit more complexity.
“Where’d You Go, Bernadette” opens with a stunning shot of what appears to be a field of stars. Moments later it’s revealed these are actually little icebergs, with a handful of brightly colored kayaks plying the dark waters of Antarctica. Paddling one of the crafts is Bernadette.
So, that answers that question. We know where she’s gone.
Blanchett is such a good actor, she makes us care about a woman who is prickly by nature and impulsively does some pretty awful things. Halfway through the film we learn why Bernadette fled from L. A. to Seattle with Elgie, despite scoring two great successes and a MacArthur “genius grant” early in her career.
Her apparent disdain toward Seattle and the squad of perfectly groomed moms, led by Kristen Wiig’s Audrey, leads to a series of misadventures that further alienates Bernadette. “Popularity is overrated,” she says.
Production designer Bruce Curtis reflects Bernadette’s personality in the decor of the family’s partially dilapidated mansion ( actually
Harden Place in Munhall). But the mansion is also a manifestation of Bernadette’s stifled creativity: Half- finished rooms and dark corridors are in sharp contrast to her earlier work.
When she reluctantly agrees to a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for Bee’s perfect grades, her anxiety ramps up to new levels.
There’s a lot to like in “Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” especially in the production design and the performances of its leads, which include newcomer Emma Nelson as Bee. Pittsburgh audiences will enjoy recognizing regional sites, which range from the Waldorf School in Bloomfield to Moon Area High School to Frick Park.
But the shifting tone and certain absurdities of plot can’t be forgiven ( including a Microsoft exec’s wife working on a MacBook). The screenplay is by Holly Gent, Vincent Palmo Jr. and Linklater, who had to adapt a novel that expressed its story through emails, faxes and other forms of mixed media.
A scene in which Elgie talks with a therapist ( Judy Greer) about an intervention for Bernadette is cut with the architect talking obsessively to her long- ago mentor ( Laurence Fishburne) about what’s wrong in her life.
The answer, he intimates, is simple: Creative people must create, or they become “a menace to society.” Ehhh, maybe it’s not that simple.
What follows is a whirlwind of unrealistic action involving boats, icebergs, cute penguins, and visits to what surely must be the world’s most remote gift shop, as well as a scientific way station with incredibly lax security.
Whew. Stick around for the closing credits, which feature a real- life architectural wonder. This one, clearly, was not shot in Pittsburgh.