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Bitter architect of her own uprising: WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE?

15 Thursday Aug 2019

Posted by cinepam in Reviews

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Billy Crudup, Blue Jasmine, Cate Blanchett, Emma Nelson, Kristen Wiig, Maria Semple, Richard Linklater, Where'd You Go Bernadette

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? A better question is why should anyone care where Bernadette goes? Richard Linklater adapts Maria Semple’s bestseller, making several changes to the novel that don’t serve either the heroine or star Cate Blanchett well. Already a portrait of a family of enormous privilege—who the hell else can afford to take (on only a month’s notice, yet) a vacation to Antarctica—it adds to it an entitled protagonist whose main character trait is pissing people off.

In a way, Bernadette Fox hews close to the template of a difficult, self-involved woman with a talent for alienating people that Blanchett established in her Oscar-winning turn in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. But Bernadette lacks Jasmine’s vulnerability and she’s meaner. She lavishes what tenderness she has on young teen daughter Bee (Emma Nelson) and, to a lesser extent, husband Elgie (Billy Crudup). For the rest of the human population, this embittered architect (a MacArthur genius grant winner, at that) turned stay-at-home mom has nothing but scorn, lavishing particular venom and outright cruelty on her neighbor, Audrey (Kristen Wiig). It is her behavior toward Audrey that at last pushes Elgie into arranging an intervention, which inspires Bernadette to run away from her family.

All roads eventually lead to Antarctica where, at last, Bernadette’s back story and just why she is so acrimonious comes into focus. Too little, too late in terms of having any empathy for the character or caring about what becomes of her. At least the location (apparently really Greenland) is pretty. Shots of Blanchette kayaking among icebergs that open the film and recur later are gorgeous. But the satire falls flat and Bernadette never gives anyone besides her beloved Bee reason to spend time with her. –Pam GradyWHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE

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THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY: Trailer vs. Trailer

30 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by cinepam in News

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Adam Scott, Ben Stiller, Danny Kaye, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Wiig, Patton Oswalt, Samuel Goldwin, Sean Penn, Shirley MacLaine, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

James Thurber never wanted his short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty made into a film. Producer Samuel Goldwyn and director Norman Z. McLeod ignored him and with their 1947 adaptation, they gifted Danny Kaye with one of his greatest roles and the world with a lively comic fantasy classic that, in addition to Kaye, starred Virginia Mayo, Boris Karloff, Fay Bainter and a bevy of Goldwyn Girls.

Now Ben Stiller is getting into the act; producing, directing and starring in his own The Secret Life of Walter Mitty due out at Christmas. His costars include Kristen Wiig, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, Patton Oswalt and Shirley MacLaine. Sean Penn apparently makes an appearance, but alas for leg men everywhere, there are no showgirls. Steve Conrad (The Weather Man, The Pursuit of Happyness, The Promotion) penned the screenplay.

Thurber may have groused about Goldwyn taking his little story about a henpecked husband who imagines a life of adventure and turning it into a razzle-dazzle vehicle for Danny Kaye, but the movie is a work of comic genius that holds up after nearly 70 years. Stiller hopes that lightning strikes twice, that moviegoers will embrace his The Secret Life of Walter Mitty the same way they did Kaye’s. And he no doubt hopes it leaves as much of an imprint.

That is something for the future to decide. For now, all we can do is compare trailers. Kaye vs. Stiller. Mayo vs. Wiig. Goldwyn Girls vs. Iceland. Technicolor vs. state-of-the-art CGI. Buoyancy and slapstick vs. ??? Look for the clues contained in a scant two minutes (1:44 in the case of the 1947 version) and make your best guess. – Pam Grady

 

 

 

 

 

 

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