Where'd You Go, Bernadette

She must create so she doesn't become a menace to society. A beautiful insight into the mind of an artist who bottled up her creative drive, and became dysfunctional.

Bernadette is the kind of woman you would cross the road to avoid and who would also cross the road to avoid meeting you and she's just the perfect character for Cate Blanchett to add to her portfolio of oddballs. She's also married to something of an oddball, (Billy Crudup), who's some kind of computer genius and between them they have managed to create a nice, normal teenage daughter, (newcomer Emma Nelson, superb), and they all live in a Seattle mansion that is literally falling apart. But Bernadette isn't just a sociopathic oddball; she is, or was, a great architect who dropped out and whose midlife crisis has lasted a couple of decades.

"Where'd you go, Bernadette" is a Richard Linklater comedy so you know we are in odddball territory to begin with. What you might not realise is that it's also very funny and naturally more than a little sad. It's like a walking, talking New Yorker cartoon brought to glorious life and not just by Blanchett, (no-one does crazy quite like her), Crudup and Nelson but by a terrific supporting cast headed by Kristen Wiig and with pitch-perfect turns from Judy Greer, Zoe Chao, Laurence Fishburne, David Paymer and Steve Zahn. I loved every crazy, off-the-wall and marvellously moving moment.

This movie hasn't been treated well by "the critics," but neither were movies like "It's A Wonderful Life," "The Wizard of Oz," and many others. Sometimes critics don't see what is in front of them. The pacing only seems slow if you're spending your other reviews telling people how wonderful super hero and "Fast and Furious" movies are. How can it be slow if the whole thing takes place over a period of about three weeks? It's paced the way it should be to allow a good look at Bernadette, who she is, how she got there and the demons she deals with. It's a wonderful look at the closeness between a daughter and her mother, when the daughter often finds herself being the more mature of the two. The best part of the movie, as it should be, is Bernadette, played to mercurial perfection by Cate Blanchett. Under the obvious disruption of a manic personality, Blanchett also allows the intelligence, humor and pain of the character to show through. It's a tremendous performance and, fortunately, some of the awards are paying attention to it despite the critics. It's a thoughtful, but also very funny movie. People should give it a chance.

Started out at little slow and ended strong. The Director took to long to help us understand the complexity of Bernadette and her real struggles -which we can all identify with, so that we really liked and rooted for her. Once the movie got there it took off and ended strong. One criticism overall and not so much about this movie but an overall statement. If a movie is set in a specific city - film it in that city. There were obvious obligatory scenes of Seattle but It was clearly filmed mostly elsewhere.

I ended up seeing this movie to kill some time and I am so glad I did. As someone with anxiety, depression, and past trauma, this movie moved me. The way people can judge others with mental health issues when they have no idea what it's like, is appalling. Cate Blanchet's portrayal of someone fighting inner demons while fighting people who completely misunderstand her is awe-inspiring. I highly recommend this movie for anyone- especially anyone who has or knows someone with mental health issues. I will be taking everyone I know to see this movie.