Where'd You Go, Bernadette

A film that opens with the disappearance of a woman in Seattle. Bernadette was once a known architect. A house she built years ago was destroyed and she stopped working after that. Now she is the wife of a technology executive and the mother of a daughter; she spends her days at home, cannot get on with her neighbours and has everything done by a remote virtual assistant. The family decides to go to Antarctica. As the trip approaches her agitation grows, and in the middle of an attempted intervention she flees the house. The real subject is creativity stopping: Bernadette is not unhappy, she is unemployed. She says it directly in one scene: a person who makes things becomes dangerous if they stop. The source is Maria Semple's novel. The book was built out of letters, emails and documents; the film largely flattens that structure, which was the main objection from critics. Cate Blanchett plays Bernadette and Billy Crudup her husband. Richard Linklater directed. An enjoyable choice for anyone who likes character-driven drama and Blanchett. For a reader of the novel, the film changes the register and much of the book's satirical structure is lost.