Directed by Richard Linklater, Where’d you go Bernadette takes us at first to what it seems an exciting journey, not only to Antarctica where Bee (Emma Nelson) wants to spend Christmas holidays with her parents but also into the complex mind of her mother Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett), an award-winning architect who has stopped working for about a decade. Bernadette’s husband, Elgie Fox (Billy Crudup) is a successful businessman who has devoted little time to family affairs, focused instead on his work.
This context of a husband workaholic and the wife leaving her career to take care of the family is, of course, a well-known plot in many stories. What makes the case of Bernadette more impressive is her personality, borderline with the pathological, which has isolated her from other people, a situation that she doesn’t regret at all, on the contrary, she prefers it.
Conflict arose when some changes Bernadette made to her yard unintendedly cause some severe damage to the house of her neighbour Audrey (Kristen Wiig) who also happens to have a child in the same class as Bernadette’s daughter.
While until this point the plot maintains the audience interested in Bernadette’s psychological condition, after she disappears the story changes into some predictable, sentimental search for a family rapprochement in the harsh and beautiful ambience of Antarctica.
This film would please those who look for a family story with some beautiful images of Antarctica. Running time: 104 min
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