Richard Linklater has made several movies notable for their originality and excellence - with 'Dazed and Confused', 'Tape', 'Boyhood' and the 'Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight' trilogy being the cream of the crop. He has also made a couple of clunkers, but Bernadette is almost certainly his career low. The acting, script and direction are so abysmal, it's hard to know whether the film was intended to be a drama, comedy or farce.
The plot tells how a housewife, married to a successful software geek, is having a mid-life crisis over abandoning her brilliant early career as an architect and designer. After estranging herself from family and neighbors with chronic grouchiness and bizarre behavior, she absconds. The mystery of her disappearance lasts approximately three minutes before Bernadette's husband and daughter figure out her destination and set off in pursuit. Already dire, from that point onward the film descends to the level of ineptitude and sentimentality usually found in provincial amateur dramatics. Overall, it would be gross deception to describe it as anything better than an embarrassing mess.
The plot tells how a housewife, married to a successful software geek, is having a mid-life crisis over abandoning her brilliant early career as an architect and designer. After estranging herself from family and neighbors with chronic grouchiness and bizarre behavior, she absconds. The mystery of her disappearance lasts approximately three minutes before Bernadette's husband and daughter figure out her destination and set off in pursuit. Already dire, from that point onward the film descends to the level of ineptitude and sentimentality usually found in provincial amateur dramatics. Overall, it would be gross deception to describe it as anything better than an embarrassing mess.