海角大神

Some of the most powerful recent moments in movies for me have been the ones in which mothers have been at their most righteous: Regina King in 鈥淚f Beale Street Could Talk鈥� fiercely seeking out the woman who falsely accused her daughter鈥檚 incarcerated fianc茅 of rape;聽Sienna Miller in 鈥淎merican Woman鈥� pushing through her grief following the unsolved disappearance of her daughter; Claire Foy as Janet Armstrong in 鈥淔irst Man鈥� insisting Neil tell their boys he may never come back from his moon mission; Sarah Greene as the Irish mother in the underseen 鈥淩osie鈥� battling moment to moment her family鈥檚 homelessness. These women are the true superheroes in our movies.聽

Now to the mother mix comes the movie version of Maria Semple鈥檚 2012 bestseller 鈥淲here鈥檇 You Go, Bernadette.鈥� The novel was a jaunty mishmash about an agoraphobic Seattle architect who retreated from her stellar career and has now settled into uneasy domesticity with her indulgent husband, Elgin, and fiercely loyal 15-year-old daughter, Bee. Faced with an impending Antarctica family vacation, a dream trip for Bee grudgingly promised to her by her parents, Bernadette abruptly disappears.

Starring Cate Blanchett as Bernadette, Billy Crudup as Elgin, and Emma Nelson as Bee, the movie Richard Linklater has fashioned from Semple鈥檚 novel 鈥� which incorporated emails, letters, phone transcripts, and police reports from multiple voices 鈥� could have taken its cue from any number of colorations. He chose, according to an interview in Entertainment Weekly, to focus on what 鈥渢he book was really about at its emotional core, which was an intense portrait of motherhood.鈥澛�

With works ranging from 鈥淪chool of Rock鈥� to 鈥淏oyhood鈥� and the great 鈥淏efore鈥� trilogy (starting with 鈥淏efore Sunrise鈥�), Linklater is perhaps the most gifted, and certainly the most versatile, director of his generation. But he falters in 鈥淏ernadette鈥� because, ultimately, his sensibility may be too conventional, too sane, to encompass the human maelstrom that is Bernadette. And Blanchett鈥檚 performance, while intensely watchable, is also a species of shtick. She鈥檚 done this sort of thing before, most recently in 鈥淏lue Jasmine,鈥� and her attempts at psychological disjunction are starting to look rote. By design, her performance, and the movie itself, doesn鈥檛 descend into the dark turbulence of Bernadette鈥檚 psychoneurosis. To do so would upset the film鈥檚 enforced composure. It鈥檚 a safe movie about people who don鈥檛 feel safe in this world.聽

The film does nevertheless raise a pertinent issue: How can we portray motherhood in the movies in ways that make sense to us now? Allowing, of course, for vast exceptions, the traditional mothers, stretching back to film鈥檚 beginnings, have firstly been wives, helpmates, homemakers, deeply maternal, deeply sacrificial. The apex of this was probably Barbara Stanwyck鈥檚 performance in 鈥淪tella Dallas,鈥� which demonstrated how talent can transform a tearjerker into art. The exceptions, such as Faye Dunaway鈥檚 scabrous turn as Joan Crawford in 鈥淢ommie Dearest,鈥� proved the rule.

Despite movies like 鈥淟ady Bird,鈥� in which the vitriolic mother-daughter bickering only highlights how much they love (and resemble) each other, what we are increasingly getting now are films in which motherhood is portrayed as a fraught profession. Being a mother, as in 鈥淏ernadette,鈥� can wrongfully wrench you away from your creativity. Her separation from her family 鈥� and this is a modern touch 鈥� is intended to be liberating, not alienating. But the real issue is this: Mothers are supposed to protect us, to shoo away the monsters from under the bed. But how do mothers keep their children safe, keep themselves safe, when the world has seemingly become such a minefield?

A movie like 鈥淩oom,鈥� where a kidnapped mother, played by Brie Larson, ruthlessly protects her little boy from a real-life monster, is perhaps the clearest metaphor for this modern-day maternal survivalism. In 鈥淏en is Back,鈥� Julia Roberts is rived by another monster, her beloved son鈥檚 drug habit; as is Mary Kay Place in 鈥淒iane.鈥� In 鈥淭hree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri鈥� Frances McDormand, furious that her daughter鈥檚 murderer has not been caught, turns herself into a figure of almost biblical wrath.

The heroism of these mothers reverberates in a world where their traditional roles can no longer stand up to the enormity of their challenges. Something more is needed. Whatever their virtues and faults, such films represent signposts to a new direction.聽