Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a 2019 American mystery drama film directed by Richard Linklater, based on the novel of the same name by Maria Semple. It stars Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Kristen Wiig, Emma Nelson, Judy Greer and Laurence Fishburne.

The film follows Bernadette, a retired architect, wife and mother who hates people, hates leaving her house and most of all, she hates the other parents at her daughter Bee’s school. The family decides to take a cruise to Antarctica, but Bernadette goes missing after first causing damage to their neighbor’s house, running over another mother’s foot at school and giving her and her husband’s personal information to a fake virtual assistant.

This film deals with illnesses, such as depression, bipolar disorder, insomnia and narcissism. It shows how other people who knows someone with these illnesses, deal with it. It also shows how a person with mental illness can get help and how important family and friends are. It proves that people still love regardless of your issues.

Cate Blanchett is absolutely perfect in the role of Bernadette Fox, so is Billy Crudup as her husband Elgin Branch. Emma Nelson does a good, not great job as Bee Branch. Kristen Wiig does great as Audrey Griffin and Judy Greer does equally great as Dr. Kurtz. Laurence Fishburne does fine as Paul Jellinek.

Overall, this film is entertaining, eye opening for its portrayal of mental illness and at times, is heartwarming. It proves how important help is for mental health problems and how to look outside yourself and how to put yourself in other’s shoes and how to get to know someone before you start trusting them.

This is a very well done film, but at times, is a bit slow and a bit rushed. But the things it teaches, are for important, because mental health issues, often get overlooked in films, books and in the real world. Not many know how to edeal or cope with it and this film is a perfect example of that. Despite being a mostly sad film, it does have some happy scenes, proving that it does have heart. It also proves that when you love someone, you love them despite their flaws and help them when they need it. Not the best film I’ve seen lately, but definitely not the worst, but pretty far from outstanding. 13+ 3/5