Have I said that comedy is my favorite genre? I believe I've covered that sufficiently, so when I went to view "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?", I found that this is not the typical mainstream comedy out there like so many are and this made me very happy. So many comedies are riddled with four-letter words, sex and drug activity and banal, toilet humor, whereas this was much drier humor with at times one would wonder, 'am I supposed to laugh?' We should see more comedies such as this.
Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett) seems to have it all--a beautiful home, a loving husband, Elgie (Billy Crudup) and a brilliant teenage daughter, Bee Branch (Emma Nelson). When Bernadette suddenly disappears, her concerned family sets off on an exciting adventure to solve the mystery of where she might have gone.
Based on the runaway best seller, this is an inspiring comedy about Bernadette, a loving mom who becomes compelled to connect with her creative passions (she's a known architect), after years of sacrificing herself for her family. Out of desperation, she feels she must leave without their knowledge even though she still loves her family. Bernadette's leap of faith takes her on an epic adventure that hopefully jump-starts her life and leads to her triumphant rediscovery.
Others to round out the cast are Kristen Wiig as Audrey, Judy Greer as Dr. Kurtz, James Urbaniak as Marcus Strong, Troian Bellisario as Becky, Zoe Chao as Soo-Lin, Laurence Fishburne as Paul Jellinek, Steve Zahn as David Walker and Megan Mullally as Judy Toll.
This was directed with wit and sophistication by veteran Richard Linklater ("Slacker" '90, "Dazed and Confused" '93, "SubUrbia" '96, "Waking Life" '01, "School of Rock" '03, "Bad News Bears" '05, "A Scanner Darkly" '06, "Bernie" '11, "Boyhood" '14, "Last Flag Flying" '17) plus others, TV, shorts and a documentary. This is certainly a filmmaker which cannot be pigeon-holed, which makes him creative, assured and willing to think and live outside the box which frightens the majority of people. His resume runs the gambit: comedy, drama, biopics, etc. This, as with his other films, showcases his abilities to be able to extract the emotions he needed to do, in order to convey a certain realness of characters to his audience. It was wittily written by Linklater, Holly Gent and Vince Palmo, based on the novel by Maria Semple. The character development for this was interesting in that it was delineated concisely in not only a humorous way but one that showcases a dramatic side to the characters as well. With this, one can see a real person that is more 3-dimensional as compared to other comedies where the characters are so over-the-top which can create absurdity. It has a great ensemble cast which holds your attention: Wiig's obsessive, noisy neighbor, Blanchett's depressed, acerbic, sarcastic architect/mom, Crudup's way too understanding husband and Nelson's common-sensed, passionate teenage daughter. Certainly Linklater has the lion's share of the writing experience here, but considering Gent and Palmo have both worked with Linklater, they will definitely go far.
If a powder-dry comedy laced with a certain amount of drama is your thing, this will be the film for you, however if you are into a more banal, formulaic, clichéd screenplay, order something off Netflix and call it a day. This is definitely a much better comedy than the other so-called comedies out there. It was funny, maybe not quite as funny as I was hoping, but funny nonetheless.
Out of 4 Stars: Rated: PG-13 109mins.
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