Cate Blanchett's off on an adventure in the second trailer for Where'd You Go, Bernadette. Richard Linklater's adaptation of Maria Semple's novel (of the same name) has had a difficult time holding onto a release date for the past couple years. The movie entered production in July 2017 and was originally slated to hit theaters in May 2018, but was thereafter delayed to the following October, then March 2019, and is currently set to arrive this August. Whether it's the film's quality or Annapurna Pictures' recent financial problems to blame for the delays (or both), is up in the air for now.
Blanchet stars in Where'd You Go, Bernadette as Bernadette Fox, a loving mom who vanishes one day, leaving it to her teenaged daughter Bee (Emma Nelson) and husband Elgie (Billy Crudup) to figure out where she's gone to, and why. The film's previously-release trailer focused heavily on the mystery surrounding Bernadette's disappearance, and her family's subsequent efforts to uncover the truth about her. Annapurna has now unveiled a new preview that takes a dramatically different approach by focusing on Bernadette herself.
Annapurna has released the latest Where'd You Go, Bernadette trailer online, and presumably attached the preview to some of this weekend's new theatrical releases (like The Hustle). You can check it out in the space below.
Based on the trailers and release delays, it seems Annapurna's having a hard time figuring out how to market this one. In fairness, though, that might have more to do with the film than anything else. Based on the footage released so far, Where'd You Go, Bernadette tries to embrace a variety of tones, ranging from broadly comedic (see: the scenes of Kristen Wiig's character being "run over" and having her home destroyed by Bernadette's overgrown blackberries) to the far more serious moments of Bernadette abruptly setting off to Antartica to pursue the dreams she sacrificed years ago, for her family's sake. And while it's certainly possible these elements work together perfectly fine in the actual movie, they've given rise to a hodgepodge of emotional and tonal shifts in the promos released so far.
The ever-prolific Linklater has a track record that speaks for itself (the Before trilogy, School of Rock, Boyhood), but every filmmaker misfires now and then, and it's possible the writer-director couldn't figure this one out. But again, Where'd You Go, Bernadette may yet surprise and prove to be one of those movies that works perfectly fine as a whole, but comes off feeling clunky in a two-minute trailer format. The movie's mid-late August release date doesn't necessarily inspire confidence either, but it's far from a dumping ground; after all, Crazy Rich Asians was a huge hit when it premiered over that frame in 2018. All the same, it might be best to approach this one with a little caution.
Source: Annapurna Pictures
