Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Annapurna Distribution | Release Date: August 16, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
18
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Original-CinKaren GordonAug 17, 2019
It’s not always a comfortable place to be, but with Linklater explores it here with humour, rather than pathos. And once again, with his persistent humanism, he offers us a question worth exploring. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicMelissa YeagerAug 16, 2019
Overall the movie is a delightful escape with several laugh-out-loud moments. It's definitely worth "girls night out" or "mom-and-daughter" trip to the movies. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAug 14, 2019
One of Linklater’s greatest filmmaking instincts involves his casting decisions. Newcomer Emma Nelson is a real find as Bernadette’s daughter. Although Blanchett’s performance seems a bit mannered and slightly reminiscent of her Oscar-winning performance in "Blue Jasmine," these are hardly flaws when the outcome is so riveting. Wiig beautifully toes a difficult line between drama and comedy. It’s a line similar to the one etched by this film: an emotional crisis mixed with laughs. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 14, 2019
If the family dynamics feel perfunctory and too-neatly resolved by the end of Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Blanchett’s nuanced portrayal of stymied creativity, exacting taste and sensibilities too bold and well-judged for an uncaring world manages to be funny and uncompromising in equal measure. Read full review
75
The Film StageJordan RaupAug 14, 2019
One imagines how over-the-top zany this could have been made, had the adaptation been overtly faithful, yet Linklater is able to extract the heart of the story while injecting some of his own characteristic themes. Read full review
70
Film ThreatAlan NgAug 19, 2019
The problem with the film is although we walk away from the theater with a good feeling inside, the film lacks an edge…particularly a dark one. Everyone in the movie is good, wholesome people. No one’s really the villain. Bernadette’s problem is not all that surprising. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneAug 17, 2019
Where’d You Go, Bernadette has to be seen, and demands to be believed, because of Cate Blanchett. Like “Blue Jasmine” (2013), which earned her a second Oscar, this new film lies at her command. Read full review
70
CNNBrian LowryAug 15, 2019
"Where'd You Go, Bernadette" offers a solid showcase for Cate Blanchett, in a movie that's notably slight, but finally sweet and touching. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensAug 14, 2019
The aspect of the book Linklater has chosen to focus on, and the one he infuses with playfulness and warmth, is the complex bond between a flawed but loving mother and her devoted if perhaps too-responsible child. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 14, 2019
The film is not without its problems, but its focus on the power of a mother-daughter bond and what can befall creative people when they no longer create generates considerable emotion by the close. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAug 14, 2019
Linklater, who brought such subtle, generous feeling to films like Boyhood and the Sunset trilogy, feels somehow miscast as the steward of Bernadette‘s willful eccentricities. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenAug 20, 2019
Ungainly in many ways (inconsistent in tone, unconvincing in locale, contrived in its plotting), Where’d You Go, Bernadette manages two stellar sequences that are raw and truthful enough to salvage the movie. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 15, 2019
Although Where’d You Go, Bernadette suffers from an ungainly structure and uneven pacing, the production as a whole is engaging and uplifting. Read full review
63
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonAug 15, 2019
Linklater is a naturally empathetic filmmaker, and you can feel him trying to find something he can latch onto in the Desperate Housewives cat-fighting that dominates the movie in the early going. He’s helped ultimately by the story, and by the performances of Blanchett and Wiig, who are given room to embellish their characters and relationships. Read full review
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