Away We Go (2009)

I think I can honestly say that I like Sam Mendes. His films seem to gun above all else for a place of timeless emotional resonance (even when that timelessness eludes the films themselves) and usually succeed, even within the more confined quarters of their respective settings, whether the war-gutted landscape of Jarhead or the 30s era noir of Road To Perdition. Although the critically loved American Beauty loses alarming shades of impact for me with each viewing due to its flawed philosophical stabs toward truth, Mendes still manages to provoke a contemplative mindset out of his audience. His films operate well on that level, even when they fall short in their personal declarations.

Away We Go is Mendes' warmest film to date, taking on a tone of humor and lightness that none of his other works approached without a biting irony to match. Bert (The Office's John Krasinsky) and Verona (SNL's Maya Rudolph) are a young couple expecting their first child. They occupy a ramshackle trailer in Colorado near where Bert's parents (Jeff Daniels and Catherine O' Hara) live. Bert and Verona's reasons to remain in the area fall apart quickly when his parents decide to immediately move to France for a couple years, despite hearing the news of their coming grandchild. With that incentive now gone, the couple embarks on a road trip around the continental U.S. to reunite with old friends and look for a new place to call home. With each stop, through each encounter with estranged family and past friends, they find unsurety in their future as well as deepening layers in their relationship.

I've read a couple accounts that criticize the clashes between the poignancy and humor in Away We Go, and to a certain extent I would have to agree. There is definitely a clumsily staggered rhythm at certain points in the story, but overall I'd say that the heart of the insights and conflict overcomes the erraticism of the pace. There is some great chemistry between Krasinsky and Rudolph, and the talent (the aforementioned Daniels and O' Hara, Jim Gaffigan, Allison Janney, Paul Schneider, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, among the rest of the supporting ensemble) create convincing foils and compliments to Bert and Verona's journey. The direction is solid, and the screenplay (by first time screenwriters, novelist husband-and-wife team Vandela Vida and Dave Eggers) is sharp, hilarious and mostly consistent with its narrative. There's really nothing to keep me from recommending Away We Go. It's got an infectious vibe to it, and while it may be incongruent at times, and perhaps ride the Juno/Little Miss Sunshine/Junebug wave a little hard, it still remains enjoyable and heartfelt.

Fmovies: Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph), an unmarried but devoted-to-each-other couple, are expecting a baby girl in three months. They moved near Burt's parents (Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara) because they wanted to give their child loving relatives in close proximity. Now, however, Burt's mom and dad announce that they are fulfilling a lifelong dream of "moving to Belgium", where they will be for the next two years. Huh. It does not appear that they are thinking of the coming granddaughter, only of themselves. This throws Burt and Verona into a frenzy of activity, for they want to select another locale to call home, near friends or relatives, and there isn't much time. Over the course of the next few weeks, the young couple travel to Arizona, Wisconsin, Montreal, and Florida in search of a new place to put down roots. Along the way, the pregnant twosome meet up with a bizarre friend (Allison Janney), an "adopted cousin" (Maggie Gyllenhaal), and other pals and relations. Will they find the perfect place to raise their daughter? After viewing this winning movie, no one can ever say that Sam Mendes does not have a softer side, which, to be honest, was fairly absent in his works such as American Beauty or Revolutionary Road. In fact, although Mendes is still wonderful at showing the idiosyncrasies and flaws in the lives of average Americans, this film's sweetness is its core asset. The cast is great, with Krasinski and Rudolph near perfect as the loving couple, while Janney, Daniels, O'Hara, and all of the lesser known cast members do a great job as well. Gyllenhaal deserves special mention, for she looks sensational and is a scream as the "new age" type mother. Naturally, it is quite beautiful to go from one splendid venue to the next and the costumes are lovely as well, especially Rudolph's maternity wardrobe. As for the script, it is stylish, imaginative, and very funny. If you love exceptional movies that more closely resemble coq au vin than meatloaf in the world of films, here is one definitely for you to savor. .

The style of Away We Go very much reminded me of a late 1960s/early 1970s film. I kept thinking of Harold and Maude or The Graduate, where the lead characters learn about themselves as their relationships grow and change. There were some characters that were so despicable that they'll make you laugh and cringe at the same time. The disappointments were done in a comedic way so the movie never drags. There were introspective scenes along the journey where I thought a Cat Stevens song would start playing.

The main couple travel to various cities to find the perfect place to raise their daughter and they meet an insane cast of characters along the way. These people remind me of people I've actually met in real life. A lot are parents with the best of intentions but what they are doing is just plain wrong.

Maya Rudolph should be in more serious roles. She's an amazing actress. She gives a very genuine performance, no overacting at all. As for John Krasinski, he was very good too as the loving, supportive boyfriend. There's a scene where he kept trying to say the right thing, but it keeps coming out all wrong. I think any couple will be able to relate to it when they see the film.

What makes this movie charming and deeper than a lot of romantic comedies is that you already have an established couple that's very much in love. This is usually where a romantic comedies ends, but Away We Go probes the deeper question of what happens after you meet the person of your dreams. Away We Go completely avoids the cliché of boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl again.

I thought the music was okay, not the best, but the two men I was with very much enjoyed it.

I don't want to give away too much, but if you like a quieter film with a tone like the other movies I mentioned, you will enjoy this. If you're a looking for just a mindless roadtrip, this is not the film for you.

***I just read an article that the screenwriters were influenced by early 1970s movies, especially Hal Ashby who directed such classics as Being There and Harold and Maude. That explains why I kept thinking of Cat Stevens. If you go to the FilmInFocus website there's a 6 page interview with the screenwriters.***

Also, there's a comment that the film glorifies animal cruelty. The dog races were chosen because it's the saddest place the screenwriters could imagine to do the scene in Arizona. The context in the movie was to show the misery of a place like that, not glorify it at all.

Away We Go fmovies. Maya Rudolph earns this movie a 10!!! I have to say though, I'm not surprised at how brilliant she is. Even on SNL she was the queen of understatement. So many good reviews have been written for this film there's not much to add that hasn't already been stated beautifully. I would only offer this one angle I haven't yet read. I took it that part of their journey was to see old faces and places with their new, about-to-be-parents, eyes. They already knew everyone they interacted with in this film. And yet on this road trip, as soon-to-be-parents, it was as though they were meeting them for the first time. And some of what they encountered was pretty shocking, or funny, or sad, in ways they hadn't picked up on before.

This is a very sweet, kooky, funny, and moving story. Maya Rudolph needs to do a lot more of this kind of work. She is BRILLIANT!!!

Warning: the formula is a little repetitive... But not to the point of diminishing it's qualities. There's a good reason for this. And the pay off at the end justifies every minute you had to wait for it. See this movie. There are few like it, and few as good.

I feel that the film makes a great connection between love and the experience of watching a movie. The end of this film is unbelievably right, given the nature of human experience and its relationship to the ideals that we construct in our heads. This movie captures the essence of both love and art together. We are bound to both love and art by a promise that we are pretty sure will be broken from time to time, just like the promises that the two people in the movie make to each other. But as human beings, we so much want the promise to come true that we will make it again and again. Whenever I watch a movie, I renew my own type of promise, one that I know will be broken, or at least will never live up to my own expectations. The characters in this movie go through the process of being broken by love (mostly through a sort of family and place Odyssey) in order to realize that the promises we make to each other can only be broken if we want them to be. We can love each other until we stop believing, and we can bring ourselves to watch a love story that keeps that same promise to the viewer. Sam Mendes has made the only romantic comedy he could ever make as a director: one that respects the viewer as well as the characters.

Just six months after introducing us to one of the most unlikable and miserable movie couples viewers had ever seen in "Revolutionary Road", director Sam Mendes takes us on a little detour from his usual style/genre and allows us to meet one of the most likable on-screen pairings in recent years with "Away We Go".

TV's John Krasinski is the amiable goof-ball and insurance-futures' salesman Burt and SNL alum Maya Rudolph (in a quietly revelatory performance built on her gift of perfectly timed facial expressions) is his long-time girlfriend Verona who does illustrations for medical textbooks. Suddenly they find themselves pregnant and searching for a real home in this semi-autobiographical tale from scribes Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. The pair, untethered to their current situations, decide to travel all over North America visiting family and friends so that they might find that perfect spot to lay down roots. Fans of Eggers' books should be pleased that the screenplay is imbued with his popular brand of sharp humor mixed with diluted sentimentality. The tale of these two thirty-somethings trying to do the right thing not only for themselves but for their daughter-to-be is filled with humor and warmth that allows us to relate to both the chaos around the characters and their desire to shield their baby from it.

Under Mendes surprisingly laid-back director's hand, the material and the performances rise above the clichés of the "she's having a baby!" sub-genre of dramedies while successfully interweaving elements of "discovering yourself on a road trip" indie flicks. Episodic and sometimes meandering in nature, the film's acts range from laugh-out-loud hilarious (including a scene-stealing Allison Janney making a bid for worst mother of the year in grand comedic style) to laughably absurd (witness Maggie Gyllenhaal as a self-righteous alterna-mom with an unfounded hatred towards strollers) to unexpectedly poignant (in an unexpected side-trip to Miami to help Burt's brother through a crisis). You won't find any screamingly awful delivery room scenes here, and while there is some semi-crude sexual humor, it's reality-based instead of raunchy and never overshadows the film's heart.

As with any Mendes' production, the cinematography (this time from Ellen Kuras) is artistically sound and serves as the perfect place for Mendes to paint his details. When the director uses a steady tracking shot moving through the passengers on a plane in mid-flight to focus in on the sun's hazy golden light coming through the windows highlighting the faces of our two stars sitting side-by-side, you can see Burt and Verona unified in a yearning pensive loneliness that makes you instantly root for their success. The promise of that scene is wonderfully fulfilled in the closing act (the details of which I will not divulge) which is probably the most hopeful denouement -- beautifully understated and with minimal dialogue -- you will ever find in a Mendes' film. As with anything in life, even in the most hopeful of atmospheres there is still some uncertainty, but if we're lucky, we'll see the talented Maya Rudolph in more lead roles and Sam Mendes will take time for more pleasant detours such as this.