Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019) * *

Directed by:  Richard Linklater

Starring:  Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Emma Nelson, Kristen Wiig, Laurence Fishburne, Judy Greer, Steve Zahn, Megan Mullally

When Bernadette Fox finally breaks free of the life that has been smothering her for the past twenty years, I suppose I'm happy for her.    Was I moved?    Eh.   At long last, Where'd You Go, Bernadette inspires merely muted pleasure but little else.    Because Bernadette Fox is played by Cate Blanchett, I hung in there with her much longer than I should have, hoping something more would come from all of this.   

Bernadette, her Microsoft executive husband Elgie (Crudup) and daughter Bee (Nelson) live in suburban Seattle in a dilapidated mansion which might've once been home to the Addams Family.    The house is one step away from condemnation.   The blueberry patch outside has grown so voluminous that it encroaches into the neighbor's yard and obscures the view of the house.    Vines and foliage grow out of control.   The inside is a maze of leaks galore, unpainted walls, mold, mildew, clutter, and general mess.    The only thing Bernadette cares about in the entire world is her daughter Bee (Nelson), who adores her mother equally, while obviously ignoring Bernadette's depression and the fact that the family lives in a rat hole.  

Bernadette was once a rising superstar architect in Los Angeles, until a show business mogul bought the property housing her latest project and razed it, causing Bernadette to quit architecture and flee to Seattle with Elgie roughly twenty years back.    At least Elgie is not immune to the alarming signs of Bernadette's mental issues.   He consults a top psychologist (Greer), and stages an intervention, causing Bernadette to flee her surroundings and light out for Antarctica.   Why Antarctica?   Well, Bee arranged for a family vacation there over Christmas break, because I guess hanging around ice sheets with seals and penguins is the cure to what ails them all.  

We see Bernadette as a desperately unhappy, antisocial (referring to her neighbors and the parents of Bee's classmates as "gnats"), pill popping, agoraphobic disaster who has a closer relationship to her virtual assistant to whom she dictates personal errands and confessions about her sorry life.    We know as night follows day that the virtual assistant isn't what it seems, but I can't say I was expecting this twist.

Once Bernadette flees to Antarctica and regains her zest for life, Where'd You Go, Bernadette goes from quirky and mildly interesting to drudgery.    Elgie and Bee pursue her, and Bernadette finds a project in the new Antarctic base station which returns the light to her eyes and a smile to her face.   She was meant to be creative, by God, and she will be again.    Bee wants desperately to catch up with her mother, while Elgie isn't necessarily thrilled to have his wife back in the fold.    He behaves like a guy who sees his marriage to Bernadette as an obligation to be endured.    He's a workaholic, and who could blame him?

Where'd You Go, Bernadette wants us to be uplifted about Bernadette's revival, but I couldn't get there.   The Seattle scenes are ones of rain-soaked misery, and Antarctica is actually a step up, although those icebergs sure do look phony.    Where'd You Go, Bernadette, like its title character, is so gloomy for so long that we can't buy the sudden redemption and joy.   It feels false, although I think I'd rather live on an ice shelf than that house.