Respond to these rapid questions in our Whered You Go Bernadette quiz and we will tell you which Whered You Go Bernadette character you are. Play it now.
According to the well-known parenting adage, having a child alters our lives completely. For the main character in Richard Linklater’s new film “Where’d You Go, Bernadette,” becoming a mother not only altered her way of life, but it also affected her art and career, as well as her overall personality. It’s a topic that deserves to be explored in depth—especially in light of the increasing number of women who are sharing candid stories from the frontlines of motherhood—but, unfortunately, it isn’t given the attention it deserves in the film’s clumsy script.
Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett) was once a rising star in the world of architecture, according to the story that is pieced together from voiceover narration and an unbelievably high-quality video essay. In the aftermath of one career-shattering setback and a tense transition into motherhood, she retreats into the confines of a stately old mansion in Seattle with her husband Elgie (Billy Crudup) and their precocious daughter, Bee (Emma Nelson). It causes a panic attack in Bee, the agoraphobic recluse, triggering an avalanche of problems that sends her on a journey towards self-discovery, with her family completely unaware of where she’s gone or what she’s been up to.
The film adaptation of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” is based on the novel of the same name by Maria Semple, and it shifts the focus of the story away from Bee’s search for her runaway mother and onto Bernadette’s shoulders. This character, on the other hand, is not concerned with making it easy for the audience to empathize with her. Because Linklater can’t seem to find the right tone for Bernadette’s story, she appears to be comically ill-equipped to handle even the most basic of household chores, and she defers a number of her personal responsibilities to an unseen digital assistant based in India at various points throughout the film. Afterwards, when her helplessness and anxiety are depicted in a more tragic light, it leaves a guilty aftertaste in the mouths of viewers who may have laughed at the earlier scenes. Add in Blanchett’s scathing performance as a woman on the verge of requiring the assistance of a mother’s little helper just to pick up her child from school, and the already conflicted film gains yet another layer of complexity. When Bernadette speaks to her digital assistant, she can be casually racist, and her superiority complex towards just about everyone else feels less like a defense mechanism and more like a justification for treating others in a deplorable manner. Audrey, Bernadette’s PTA-obsessed neighbor, is Bernadette’s arch-nemesis and she believes she and her family are unworthy of any better treatment (Kristen Wiig). It’s exhausting trying to keep track of how many mood swings the movie has.
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Unintentionally, “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” turns out to be a character study of a difficult artist who has a strong dislike for just about everyone who isn’t her daughter. Almost everyone else in the film tolerates her because she is widely acknowledged to be a genius in her field of expertise. Others despise her for her actions, which they may or may not be justified in doing so. Will Bernadette be eligible for the pass reserved for creative men with bad attitudes, as well as the pass reserved for men with bad attitudes? This type of prickly antihero is usually endearing because they have a sense of pathos, something to connect with or feel for, but this film doesn’t provide enough to explain or absolve Bernadette’s actions. By the time the credits roll to the well-worn tune of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” I’m not convinced Linklater knew where he wanted his film to end up or what he was trying to say with this particular story.
Whered You Go Bernadette Quiz
In addition, there does not appear to be a distinct visual style other than the constant grey and rainy skies that hover over the movie’s version of Seattle. It’s not that cinematographer Shane F. Kelly has done a poor job; it’s that the film is so blandly competent that it barely feels like a Richard Linklater film to begin with. His films have a tendency to make the audience feel a great deal more empathy for the characters. Everybody Wants Some!!,” the rowdy college boys of “Everybody Wants Some!!,” and even the unserious substitute teacher played by Jack Black in “School of Rock” were all based on stories that were being told on Linklater’s stages. The characters played by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in the “Before” trilogy were based on characters played by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in the “Before” trilogy. The fact that this connection is missing in “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” speaks volumes about the film’s discordant tone.
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Whered You Go Bernadette quiz.
The film about a wealthy white woman who abandons her family and ends up on her own feels particularly out of place in today’s world, which may be due to our collective modern-day fatigue. Bernadette lives in a very comfortable bubble: her family owns their home, she’s married to a supportive husband who works at a high-paying tech company (Microsoft, in case it isn’t stated enough times in the script co-written by Linklater, Holly Gent, and Vincent Palmo Jr.), and she has a supportive husband with a high salary. She does not refuse her daughter’s request for a trip to Antarctica, despite the fact that most Americans would not be able to afford such a trip. Even though the book has only been out for a decade, it already feels like the self-fulfillment anxieties of a previous life. This world appears to be a place where only wealthy artists can afford the luxury of creating, of running away from their families without warning, of sweet-talking their way into a relatively restricted part of the planet, and of claiming that this was something they needed to do in order to complete their genius work. For the rest of us, it’s a privileged viewpoint with nothing to offer the other side.
For more personality quizzes check this: Motherless Brooklyn Quiz.
