The First WHERE’D YOU GO BERNADETTE Trailer Has Been Found

Richard Linklater's next film, Where'd You Go, Bernadette?, is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Maria Semple. Starring Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Kristen Wiig, Judy Greer, and Laurence Fishburne, it's apparently a dramedy about a family whose entire world unravels following the sudden and inexplicable disappearance of its matriarch (that'd be Blanchett). Sounds interesting enough!

Let's take a look at the film's first trailer.

Uh, so, look - we're big Linklater fans around here. Big fans of everyone in this cast. The folks at Annapurna generally seem to know what they're doing. The novel on which this film was based reportedly sold a bajillion copies, so the subject matter clearly resonated with folks.

We say all that so that we can say the following: this is a bad trailer.

The pacing feels off, the music they've layered over it just feels jarring, and we honestly have no idea what kind of tone the movie's gonna be working with. Is it a drama with light comedic elements? A comedy with fleeting moments of tension? Why does this trailer feel like a faux trailer you'd see on 30 Rock? Why are most of these shots lit like someone's about to do surgery? Something is terribly amiss here, and though we've watched the clip above several times now, it's difficult to pinpoint what, exactly, the problem is. It's just all wrong. 

Anyway, we've got faith in this team, and we're curious to see where this one takes us. Maybe the next Where'd You Go, Bernadette? trailer will be our cup of tea. Stay tuned for that, and be aware that Linklater's next hits theaters on March 22nd, 2019.