There’s a great film hiding somewhere in Richard Linklater’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette  – the problem is, much like the titular protagonist, it’s extremely difficult to find, but unlike Bernadette, it never materializes after disappearing, remaining elusive for the entire duration of this unfortunate chore of a film. While I’ll readily admit that I am a lot more enthusiastic about this film than most have been (mainly because of my tendency to enjoy this precise brand of off-the-wall quirky comedy that is mostly character-driven with some heartfelt overtures), it’s impossible to look past the innumerable flaws that pervade the film – the storyline that lacks even the slight sense of cohesion, a set of performance that, while good on their own, feel like belong in entirely different films and an ultimately lazy execution that one would expect from a newcomer, rather than a seasoned director like Linklater, who has not only shown himself to be entirely capable of this exact kind of quirky comedy but has crafted some of the most extraordinary examples of it over the course of the past two decades. For these reasons alone, we can’t avoid calling Where’d You Go, Bernadette an enormous disappointment – not only because the final product isn’t all that good, but because it had all the elements to be a great showcase for the talented actors occupying the many roles in the film and a wonderfully strange excursion into the offbeat world created by Maria Semple in the source novel. It squanders almost all of it, and while we should acknowledge that the film is relatively heartfelt and often very funny, it’s nothing we haven’t seen done better before, including from the director himself.

Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett) is a world-renowned architect who retreated from her profession two decades before as a result of her social ineptitude. Her husband, Algin (Billy Crudup) is a famous computer engineer working with Microsoft to develop cutting-edge technology, and their daughter, Bee (Emma Nelson) is a gifted young woman who has inherited both of her parents’ incredible intelligence but has developed an even bigger world-view – which is why she insists on them taking a family vacation to Antarctica. The problem is, Bernadette is not particularly thrilled about the prospect of leaving her comfort zone, struggling to do even the most innocuous activities, which have made her a controversial figure in the neighbourhood, most notably to her neighbour, Audrey (Kristen Wiig), who means well, despite her tendency to micro-manage, which combats Bernadette’s more reserved nature. Over the course of a few weeks, Bernadette realizes that she’s certainly better off disappearing – which is exactly what she does, as a way of escaping an avalanche of disaster that she caused through her own misanthropic tendencies. Now, it’s up to Algin and Bee to trace the steps of a woman who they know well, yet who leaves so much up to interpretation, proving that not even her family can quite understand the enigma that is Bernadette Fox – and the question is, whether or not she herself can.

Based on this premise, Where’d You Go, Bernadette seems like something that would be enthralling at best, mildly entertaining at worst – so it’s strange how it tended to go off the rails far too quickly, and with extraordinary rapidity, with Linklater seeming to betray his own restraint as a filmmaker by never quite finding a consistent tone, or bringing Semple’s novel to the screen in a way that felt faithful to what she was trying to say with her book that may not be particularly deep, but does have a certain elegant, easygoing charm. It isn’t so clear where the film falters – perhaps it’s in the muddled execution, where the mood is far too convoluted to be entirely effective, or the narrative construction, where the story doesn’t start properly until the end of the second act, by which time the audience has already grown either uncomfortable or outright bored. It could be the wasted potential, where the cast and a great premise go entirely unrewarded for the sake of a half-baked attempt at a quirky comedy that feels neither clever nor all that original. The themes of the film are effective, if not very predictable, so the outright refusal to engage with the more challenging intricacies of the story, as few and far between as they may be, seemed to be the most significant shortcoming, considering how Linklater has frequently proven himself to be someone remarkably capable of provoking certain ideas and delivering complex stories from even the most innocuous of places. Where’d You Go, Bernadette feels mostly like a failure on his part, because while this kind of directorial incompetence can be expected from a newcomer, a seasoned veteran like him, especially someone who has so frequently worked in this genre, should have somehow known better. Still, we shouldn’t blame him so much, as the film just feels like a collaborative effort in wasting talent.

Cate Blanchett can do no wrong, and Where’d You Go, Bernadette doesn’t necessarily invalidate this thesis – even when the film itself isn’t particularly great, she delivers a very good performance that exceeds everything else in the film, while not quite compensating for the shortcomings. Blanchett has always thrived at playing these unhinged characters that feel both vaguely detached from reality, yet being very much grounded within it. Bernadette is a character that is less of a role and more of a gift for any actress, as there are long stretches where she has to deliver dramatic monologues (in the guise of speaking to her personal assistant, “Manjula”), or wax poetic about the various misfortunes she has to endure. Essentially, it’s a chance for her to portray someone crazy without committing to playing someone with actual issues, but rather a lethal combination of entitlement and insecurity, which would normally make this a very compelling performance – and Blanchett, for what its worth, does her best with a role that worked in the novel, but whose idiosyncrasies seemed to get lost in the transition between the source material and the screenplay, where she became nothing but a bundle of ill-formed, faux-complexities. Blanchett is also one of the few actresses working today that can elevate such material, but not in a way that really improves the film, but just makes it bearable enough. Where’d You Go, Bernadette is also a great showcase for Nelson, who is poised for a breakthrough (even if this film was trying to be it), and who will hopefully appear in better films, as she often gives Blanchett, an actress of enormous stature when it comes to her performances, a run for her money in how she commands the screen. Billy Crudup has rarely been as charming as he was here, and Kristen Wiig is once again the most reliably great part of a film, being given a despicable character, which she absolutely sells without a moment of hesitation. This film brings together a terrific cast, so you can imagine the disappointment of every viewer when they realize the film around them wasn’t all that good.

There are many reasons why this film could be considered something of a disappointment, which we’ve outlined above already. However, while it is quite puzzling to figure out where this film went wrong, I’d argue the biggest failure of the film is the fact that it had all the elements to succeed and didn’t have any of the traditional challenges that plague these kinds of films, yet it still manages to not work in many ways. There’s a certain admiration that comes when a film has a difficult subject or some broad challenges, and even if the final product isn’t very good, we can still appreciate the effort. Where’d You Go, Bernadette is the antithesis of this – it had such an easy road to success, and it deviated so much, it failed to reach the end in a way that felt authentic. Naturally, we can’t be too harsh on the film – it was trying to be anything particularly meaningful, but just a heartfelt comedy about an offbeat woman and her various misadventures. It just begs to be asked, with as much as this film had going for it, how did it manage to be so dreadfully boring? An audacious failure may not be great, but at least there was some ambition. Where’d You Go, Bernadette fizzles from the outset and never even tries to capture the easily-attainable spark that would allow it to amount to…something. This is an inherently frustrating film because there was so much that could’ve been done, but the clear lack of effort speaks to the fact that this film was never going to be a priority for anyone involved – if it had been, we’d have been presented with a much better film.

There are obviously some merits in Where’d You Go, Bernadette, but it only becomes clear once you surrender yourself to the fact that this film wasn’t ever going to be all that good. Linklater has made a film that appeals very broadly, and it does work in a strangely compelling way. It’s a film that is very often funny, and which captures the zany tone of the novel in a way that at least can hold our attention – even when it isn’t particularly original, at least it tends to be relatively entertaining, with its good-natured humour and commitment to giving Blanchett a really fun character to play. This is the precise point that can make the viewer pivot on whether they enjoy this film or not – Where’d You Go, Bernadette is nothing more than a showcase for Blanchett, and it does serve its purpose, without being close to her best work. The actress has shown herself to have remarkable comedic timing, especially considering it isn’t always demonstrated in the more dramatic fare that tends to populate most of her filmography. She’s such an effortlessly charming actress, and she (as we’ve said already) was one of a few actresses working today that could play the character without resorting to just a few tics disguised as meaningful quirks. In the same way that a film like Mamma Mia was crafted as a chance for Meryl Streep to abandon the serious roles and have fun, Where’d You Go, Bernadette serves the same purpose for Blanchett. The only difference is that this film had the potential to be something more than it was.

Ultimately, Where’d You Go, Bernadette will have a very niche legacy – the only people that will remember it are fans of Semple’s novel, Linklater completists and devotees to Blanchett. It’s almost impossible to envision anything more than this for the film, which is actually the best-case scenario, as fading into obscurity would be the most beneficial option – it certainly isn’t bad enough to be seen as a disaster, but still not nearly good enough to defend. There are occasional moments where it does tend towards being somewhat heartfelt, even if it doesn’t happen all that often,   and the film does manage to get across a few ideas with relative ease, even if the result doesn’t always appear to be something all that worthwhile pursuing. This film had so much potential, and while the film is mediocre at worst, it the disregard for what could’ve been that is most offensive and makes Where’d You Go, Bernadette almost entirely forgettable. Blanchett is as splendid as always, and the rest of the cast does their best, but unfortunately, as we’ve seen before, sometimes good intentions don’t always work out in the way that they should, and the nicest compliment we can give to this film is that it isn’t a complete disaster, even if the truth is that it would’ve been at least memorable had the film not played it safe and gone off the rails – but unfortunately, Where’d You Go, Bernadette couldn’t even muster enough passion to be anything more or less than painfully average.