Meet Bernadette Fox, a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown in Richard Linklater's "Where'd You Go, Bernadette." Once a brilliant architect, now a stay-at-home mom supported by her husband's tech-sector wealth, Bernadette has transformed a life of privilege into a psychological dungeon. Antisocial, insomniac and highly medicated, Bernadette is a shadow of her once-lively self _ a modern-day Doll of Silicon Valley, so to speak.
"I just need you to know how hard it is for me sometimes," she says to her wide-eyed tweener daughter, Bee. "The banality of life."
If Bernadette weren't played by the radiant, razor-sharp Cate Blanchett, we'd never put up with her, or this movie. Blanchett has long excelled at playing such fatally flawed diamonds _ a calculating lover in "Carol," a soul-sucking socialite in "Blue Jasmine" _ and her performance here is dependably terrific, a masterful blend of wrenching emotion and screwball comic timing. (Who else could make us laugh at Bernadette's attempt to con her pharmacist out of some Haldol?) Blanchett makes us feel compassion and pity for this well-dressed train wreck. The movie's mistake is that it asks us to adore her.
Linklater, who co-wrote the screenplay from Maria Semple's novel, has always been an astute people-watcher (see "Dazed and Confused" or "Boyhood" for proof). Initially, he sees Bernadette with bracing clarity. She harbors an irrational hatred for her too-perfect neighbor, Audrey (Kristen Wiig); she resents her husband, Elgie (a sensitive Billy Crudup), for his creative successes at Microsoft; she turns to Bee (an endearing Emma Nelson, in her screen debut) for unconditional love. After Bernadette becomes the focus of an FBI investigation _ a wild contrivance, but an amusing one _ Elgie begs his wife to seek help. Instead, she vanishes.
Here, the movie goes into cutesy-magical overdrive, as Bernadette flies away to rediscover the genius that once earned her a MacArthur grant. Meanwhile, Elgie and Bee travel to the literal ends of the Earth _ Antarctica _ to find her. It's all pitched as a thrilling treasure hunt. Here's a plainer word for it: desertion.
Near the film's end, Elgie stands before his poor, misunderstood wife and reaches into his pocket. "I have something for you," he says. It's a token of his undying love, of course, but you might find yourself wishing it were divorce papers.
