From Page to Screen: Where’d You Go, Bernadette

The book Where’d You Go, Bernadette is mostly an epistolary novel so I wondered how that would transfer to the screen. How do you make a movie out of emails, letters and faxes? In this case, the writers of the movie changed the structure of the plot quite a bit. The book is a mystery – thus the name Where’d You Go, Bernadette. The reader journey along with Bernadette’s family, trying to figure out where she went and why. In the movie, the viewer is with Bernadette the whole time, there is no mystery, no suspense.

My husband, who did not read the book, watched the movie with me. He thought it was pretty good. I thought it was okay. For some reason that I can’t put my finger on, Billy Crudup gives me the creeps. I don’t like him in The Morning Show and I didn’t like him in this. He plays Bernadette’s husband, Elgin. Emma Nelson, who plays Bernadette’s daughter Bee was wonderful – I think this was her first movie – she’s going to have a great career. Cate Blanchett plays Bernadette. Of course, Cate is a fantastic actress but I thought she was miscast. I wasn’t buying her as Bernadette – I kept thinking, “Well, that’s Cate Blanchett in a wig pretending to be a zany woman.” And Kristen Wiig was dreadfully underused as Bernadette’s frenemy Audrey.

There’s so much going on in the book that had to be left out of the movie. I think the writer did a good job cutting out what wasn’t essential – you can only pack so much into under two hours. Where’d You Go, Bernadette would be an ideal book to turn into a limited series. If all the subplots were included, I think you could easily get several episodes out of it and preserve the mystery. Of course, we would have to recast the entire thing, except for Emma Nelson. I think maybe Sandra Bullock for Bernadette? And for Elgin…who can pull off nerdy, but is also good-looking? George Clooney? Ed Norton? Let me know who you think it should be. Kristen Wiig can stay as Audrey if they expand her role to be what Audrey was in the book. She’s not nearly snobby or annoying enough in the movie.

Overall, this was an entertaining movie on its own merits but if you’ve read the book, you’ll probably come away wishing for more.

(I streamed this movie for free on Hulu.)