So I checked out the greatest new movie release of last weekend… number 11 with a bullet, making none of the money and almost none of the recognition… Where’d You Go Bernadette? That’s the name of a movie you probably haven’t heard of but it definitely came out. I checked it out based on the trailer… the story of an architect who abandons her family to build arctic research stations at the South Pole. That sounds like an interesting movie, right? Maybe?
Well, that is the plot, but the focus of the flick is on the architects misanthropy… she kind of hates everyone in her life and seems to only tolerate her husband (and love her daughter). She’s played by Cate Blanchette as an architect who was famous ten years ago but has lost her drive. Unfortunately, spending this much time with such an unlikable person is not super interesting and it takes up 2/3rds of the film’s runtime. After she’s spent the whole movie being a miserable, angry, annoyed, exasperated complainer, she bails on her family to go to Antarctica.
I really didn’t like this tedious hour… but once she reaches Antarctica, at least there’s some beautiful scenery and things start to kind of come together. Her family chases after her and that’s kind of interesting too, I guess… but after spending too much time with the family, she’s an even more awful person for bombing out on them in the first place.
A story about abandoning your life to find what really makes you excited… and what makes you excited is at the ends of the Earth… is a recipe for an interesting movie. An exploration of self and the extremes. That’s ultimately not enough about what the movie is. This movie misfires often, drags on and on, and never really gets to the place promised in the trailers. I’m gonna say avoid this film… though apparently its based on a book which might be more tolerable.
Score: 62