I thoroughly enjoyed Maria Semple’s quirky book, Where’d You Go, Bernadette and looked forward to viewing the movie adaptation. The day after it opened, I went to the theater with  friends.

Cate Blanchette is a spectacular actress. She played the part of Bernadette to perfection, with exactly the right amounts of complete lunacy and tender compassion (the compassion mostly expressed for her daughter). She carried every scene she was in. Although, Bernadette can be acerbic, mean, misanthropic, frustrating and narcissistic, Blanchette portrays the character in such a way that evokes empathy. We root for her despite the fact that her travails are mostly self-created.

Newcomer Emma Nelson, plays Bernadette’s daughter, Bee. Her understated acting is splendid, a combination of teenage angst and sweet devotion to her prickly mother. She remains steadfastly loyal to Bernadette, regardless of her mother’s cringeworthy words and actions.

Billy Crudup plays Elgie,  Bernadette’s husband and Bee’s father. His character is all over the place, at times a clueless, self-involved guy who throws his wife under the bus and then later, a man who (not quite convincingly) changes. I won’t describe the transformation  so as not to give away the plot.  The problem isn’t so much with Crudup’s acting as it is with the director’s choices with portraying his character and with the screenwriter’s choices re: the plot. I don’t think the screenwriter did enough to make Elgie’s changes credible, but maybe I’m just being  cynical.

The movie was filmed in Greenland. These majestic vistas are lovely on the big screen. While on location, a hurricane halted production. The crew filmed the storm and included it in the final cut.

In the novel, Bernadette’s house, a ramshackle ex-reform school, served as a memorable character in itself. In the movie, the set designer did a phenomenal job re-creating that house, with fascinating details everywhere you look.

The book was hilarious and moved right along. The pacing of this movie felt sluggish at times and lacked the spark contained on the book’s pages. Some scenes were funny but just as many felt sad.  Great movies can be both sad and funny, but this one didn’t carry off the combination

I loved the  message of the movie. I won’t spoil it by telling you now, but it is a statement about creativity and how we need to treat creative people.

All in all, I’m glad I saw the movie and being with friends made it worth seeing on the big screen. However, if you are on the fence about going to this film, it would be a good rental, especially if you are a Cate Blanchette fan.