We kickoff the 3rd season of the podcast with the last film we saw in theaters for Cate Blanchett. Richard Linklater’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette. For this conversation Murtada Elfadl welcomes the hosts of the The B Side podcast, Dan Mecca and Connor O’ Donnell.

Click to listen:

Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts   /   Stitcher   /  Spotify  /   iHeart

Follow along the film is streaming on Hulu.

What is the film about?

From IMDB: A loving mom becomes compelled to reconnect with her creative passions after years of sacrificing herself for her family. Her leap of faith takes her on an epic adventure that jump-starts her life and leads to her triumphant rediscovery.

Based on the novel by Maria Semple, a former TV writer who worked on such shows as Suddenly Susan, Mad About You, and Arrested Development.  

Who does Cate play?

Bernadette Fox – one of many titular characters Cate has played.Charlotte Gray, Veronica Guerin, Blue Jasmine, Carol. 

What year did it come out?

2019 – delayed more than a year.

Box Office: Domestic = $9.1MM Int’l = $1.8MM

Critical Response: Metacritic : 51  RT: 49

Topics discussed:

• Bernadette is a genius who suffered a major career setback. Can she recover? That’s the movie’s premise. 
• The film is effective in building the marriage story and the mother daughter relationship but the social satire from maria Semple’s book is lost. 
• A highlight scene singing Time After Time, Cate undercuts by tearing up “I retain the right to being moved by those little things no one notices”
• Was Richard Linklater miscast? The book is a social satire and that gets lost in this adaptation. 
• The woes of this adaptation  as detailed in a Vulture article. There was a script written by Michael H Weber and  Scott Neustadler who wrote 500 Days of Summer and The Spectacular Now but jettisoned by Linklater who brought in his own collaborators.
• Blanchett as a physical comedian when “talking” with Bernadette’s virtual assistant Manjula.

Murtada’s review of the film published upon release in August 2019:

“Blanchett remains best when playing unravelling women, however this is not a companion performance to her signature Oscar winning role in Blue Jasmine (2013) but rather I found myself thinking of another of her creations. The bored housewife who chooses to be kidnapped by bank robbers rather than continue filling her days with housework, in Bandits (2001). Bernadette is just as trapped as Kate Wheeler was and Blanchett manages to imbue her with the right chaotic temperenant to convey a woman confined by psychological trappings she can’t begin to face, let alone conquer. She’s always been a master of gestural acting and here she plays up her facial expressions and gives her body movement a fussy restless energy to show us how Bernadette is longing for more.”

Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts   /   Stitcher   /  Spotify  /   iHeart

Like? Rate and Review. Have a question? Leave us a comment.