Away We Go (2009) User Reviews

Definitely worth a Go

[C-Younkin · 8/10 · 21 June 2009]

Director Sam Mendes last movie showed a couple deteriorating right in front of our eyes in "Revolutionary Road", and in a way he makes up for that depressing slog with "Away We Go". The couple here are upstarts, two people with a baby on the way who for the first time find themselves wondering about where they fit in the world and what they'll be like as parents. They're hopeful, but you can see the fear plastered on their face. First time screenwriters (and husband and wife) Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida waste no time in making them two identifiable people, and in the way they survey life's odd, complicated, and wonderful little moments, "Go" never fails at being a funny, thoughtful and heartwarming little gem that you'll fall in love with.

John Krasinski (The Office) and Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) play Burt and Verona, a mid-thirties boyfriend-girlfriend (Verona has a marriage issue) who get the shock of their lives when Verona gets pregnant. Not only that but any roots they have in their little Connecticut town are about to be uprooted because Burt's parents (a funny Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara) are moving to Belgium a month before the baby is born. Having no reason to stay where they are, they pack up and take a road trip, stopping anywhere they know they might find a familiar face. Phoenix, Tucson, Madison, Montreal, and Miami are all marked for a trial period as the two try to figure out who and what they would like to raise their family around.

It's an odd blend of dealing with life's what-ifs and meeting a variety of broad characters. Allison Janney is the funniest of the broad, playing Verona's former boss Lily, an abrasive alcoholic who enjoys point-blank degrading her children and her crazy, paranoid husband, nicely played by Jim Gaffigan. Maggie Gyllenhaal also shows up later on as Burt's zen-like cousin who takes family closeness to a whole new level, i.e creepy. Mendes balances scenes like these perfectly with the richly written script. A scene between Verona and her sister (Carmen Ejogo) where the ushering in of new life forces them to confront the death of their parents, and another where Burt's brother (Paul Schneider), whose wife has just abandoned him and their young daughter, encourages Burt to think about the strength of his own bond with Verona have a rare power that speaks to the importance of family. There is a point where the interspersing of comedy and drama starts to get old but luckily a third act of genuine lessons and happy mediums lead to some of the movies best scenes.

And these are star-making turns from Krasinski and Rudolph. He has a doofy charm that gets a couple good laughs but he also makes Burt a loveably doting and comforting boyfriend there for Verona no matter what. And Rudolph is a big surprise here as she turns in a performance of maturity, vulnerability, and depth. This type of performance is a long way from SNL. They are, for the most part, the straight-men to the quirky characters and are called upon to spend most of the movie's run-time just talking and they gel so well with each other that you really don't even mind. Ellen Kuras' cinematography (rolling hills, sunrises, planes moving across glass window panes) and Alexi Murdoch's songs only increase the pleasure in this funny and effective indie rom-com.

For more reviews, check out Leesmovieinfo.com

Meet the Family...

[jordathan · 7/10 · 27 May 2009]

i just got back from a pre-screening of this in Dallas, and i must say i really enjoyed it. it seems like the whole audience enjoyed it as well, the theatre was often filled with laughter throughout this wonderful film.

i'm a fan of Sam Mendes' work, and his work excelled here in the realm of comedy. John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph shared great chemistry as a couple expecting their first child and trying to decide where to settle down and raise their family. it's a bit of a coming-of- age story about people who should have already come-of-age, as we travel across the country along with them meeting quirky parents, friends, and old schoolmates.

it's not all laughs, though. there are plenty of serious and introspective moments and my hat is off to Ms. Rudolph, generally known for her skills in comedy, for adding fine dramatic moments to her character. in the end, this movie doesn't offer any solutions to life's quirks, but it looks at them and even celebrates them.

it's not Mendes' best film, but it's a very enjoyable film with a great cast and lots of laughs, and should appeal to a pretty wide audience. it's a breath of fresh air from all of the Hollywood flash and crap that will be slopped across theater screens this summer. go see it!

Successful Detour for Director Mendes

[WriterDave · 8/10 · 7 June 2009]

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.

A road movie with a difference

[Red-125 · 7/10 · 29 June 2009]

Away We Go (2009), directed by Sam Mendes, is a road movie with a difference. Many road movies involve strangers met by the protagonist as he or she travels from place to place. Away We Go sends the two main characters into different locations, but all the people they meet are people they already know, or think they know.

When Verona De Tessant (Maya Rudolph) learns that she is pregnant, the question for her and her partner, Burt (John Krasinkski) is, Where do we live after the baby is born? To answer the question, they travel from distant (U.S. and Canadian) city to distant city. Mostly what they find is disappointment and bad surprises.

Lily (Allison Janney), a former boss and friend, proves to be a dysfunctional person raising a dysfunctional family. A "cousin," LN (Maggie Gyllenhaal) gives new meaning to the words New Age. Verona's sister Grace (Carmen Ejogo) has her own problems and heartaches.

There are jokes (and laughs) along the way, but, the trip gets more and more discouraging (for them and us) as the movie goes along. What saves Verona and Burt (and the movie) is the loving, caring, and realistic relationship between the couple. They're both interesting, quirky, and attractive people. We care for them, and we want their quest to succeed.

Both Janney and Gyllenhaal are outstanding--as expected--although Mendes has portrayed both their characters in an exaggerated, over-the-top fashion. That's OK--we get the point, and the movie is a work of fiction, not a documentary.

Maya Rudolph makes a smooth transition from TV (SNL) to film. She's not drop-dead beautiful in the Hollywood style, which makes her more attractive (to me) and more appropriate to the character she plays.

Burt's character is more problematic. He's supposed to be someone who "sells insurance to insurance companies," but he looks and dresses more like an assistant manager at a fast- food restaurant. (He goes to a job interview dressed like someone who has picked out his clothing at a thrift shop.) And, given his moderate success in business, and Verona's equally moderate success as a medical illustrator, they're amazingly casual about spending money. Are they using their life's savings?

All in all, this is a movie worth seeing, but not likely to be on anyone's list of all-time favorite movies. We saw it at the excellent Little Theatre in Rochester, NY. It would also work well on DVD.

Do the preggo shuffle Away We Go

[jaredmobarak · 6/10 · 1 July 2009]

I love Sam Mendes; I'll say that now. What else do I love? Comedies with indie quirk. And that leads me to Away We Go, a film that embodies the genre completely as evidenced by the trailer with its awkward laughs, (I stapled the itinerary to your coat? Really?), and "cool" soundtrack, I must have absolutely loved it … right? Wrong. I know I should, I know that people all around me are showering it with praise, but besides the final thirty minutes—'Away to Montreal,' 'Away to Miami,' and 'Home'—it is laboriously slow and uninteresting. Sure I laughed, and stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph are fantastic, it's just the story that never resonated with me. Until those last travels, taking them places that included situations of true weight, we mostly watch them reconnect with friends and family from the past to bring out some cheap laughs and a whole lot of uncomfortable. If you thought Allison Janney was quite the character in the trailer, just wait until the crazy hijinks leave her mouth in unedited glory, you may just change your mind.

Burt and Verona, (Krasinski and Rudolph), are a couple in their mid-thirties, unmarried and pregnant with their first child. They have moved to Burt's hometown in order to be by his parents, who have offered to help, (her folks passed on a decade earlier). Living in a trailer, doing mostly freelance work, and declaring their love for each other every second of the day—they are quite the cute couple—the idea that they have gone astray in life becomes one that sets them on a cross country journey to find a new place to call home. The fact that the two people they thought they could count on moving to Antwerp for two years definitely expedited that decision. So, they are off to Phoenix, Tucson, Madison, and Montreal to see where is best to raise their unborn daughter, all locales with people they know, an already active support group to help jumpstart their new life. The film is not about the baby though, nor how the two try to learn how to be good parents, despite the plethora of parenting advice thrown their way. Instead it is a tale about two lost souls that have each other with no other ties tethering them anywhere. It's a journey for them to discover that home is wherever the other is, none of the other static means a thing.

Like any cathartic spiritual journey, there must be a series of stops along the way, showing them how bad life can be with wrong decisions and lies. There is the couple that doesn't really love each other, an indifferent malaise that has trickled down to their children; parents that have the opportunity to be selfish and finally live for themselves, no matter if their grandchild will be born the month after; a kooky family following the three S's in life, resulting in a hippy lifestyle that makes them so self-important and bourgeois despite "hating" all that that label brings with it; and a pair of old college friends, unable to conceive, with a slew of adopted kids in a loving and censored lifestyle. A lot of the antics dealing with these clichés bring some solid humor, but even more supply forced situations that lead nowhere except for empty laughs leaving an unsatisfying taste in your mouth. Maggie Gyllenhaal's LN, (yes that's her name), and Josh Hamilton's Roderick and so over-written and stereotypical that I wondered why it took so long for our "heroes" to realize how vapid they were. And what is with the five-year-old breastfeeding? Talk about unnecessary shock value. I did like the stroller bit at the end of the sequence, however, so it wasn't all bad.

Kudos to Rudolph and Krasinski for really breathing some life in their roles, though, embodying the affliction that is the thirty-something crisis of being an adult. They react to the situations thrown their way with consistency to character and end up in the place they had been working towards all along. Why they had to endure so much overwrought comedy before reaching that point, I do not know, especially since the trip to Montreal and unfortunate visit to Miami are all that were needed to get them opened up to where they end. Maybe Verona's sister, played by Carmen Ejogo, helps the cause too, but no one else. All others become filler to pad out the story and trick the audience into thinking something relevant occurred since they laughed.

Miami contained the phenomenal Paul Schneider with virtually an extended monologue about how his wife has changed their family's lives forever. It's a strong performance that shows Krasinski what it means to be a parent and how having his girlfriend by his side is the most important thing to him. As for Montreal, the Garnetts, (Chris Messina and Melanie Lynskey), expose our leads to the fragility of existence and the many definitions of what family is. In a very touching scene, moreso because of its amateur night pole-dancing locale, we get two powerful performances and a nice metaphor comparing love with syrup. After our introduction to the Garnetts, the end result surprises a bit, but with total clarity and understanding of where they are coming from. And the final segment, 'Home,' is just the perfect bookend to the tale, leading the soon-to-be parents and us to paradise. Why, oh why did this final third have to be attached to such trite frivolity?

Sweet and funny

[labng · 7/10 · 7 August 2019]

This is an enjoyable watch. It won't change your life, but it won't waste 2 hours of your life, either. Pretty humorous with some actual laugh out loud moments. Sentimental enough without being tissues-required. So, yeah, an enjoyable watch.

A movie based on a promise.

[nepaljeff · 9/10 · 14 November 2009]

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.

Well-made, enjoyable, quirky, but not groundbreaking

[Monotreme02 · 7/10 · 15 October 2009]

It's always great to see good directors develop and go in different directions. Just in the past few years, I've seen some of my favourite directors "evolve" and direct works that are quite uncharacteristic of their previously established styles, be it David Fincher with his emotional and romantic The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or Paul Thomas Anderson with his monumental character study There Will Be Blood. Sam Mendes, one of the most fascinating and talented directors working today, has so far delivered four very precise, calculated, ambitious and large-scale films, which is why it was interesting to discover that he of all directors was behind a quirky, lax, unhinged indie dramedy.

Actually, after watching the film, Mendes' style is quite noticeable. Although it's a very loose and small-scale human comedy, the film's aesthetic is still very formal, featuring symmetrical compositions and fluid camera movements. The lighting is top notch and in general it's an indie film that has a very high-quality look, clearly Mendes' stamp. Mendes is a very interesting director in that sense, because despite his being one of the most visually striking and prominent directors working today, with his last four films being among the most gorgeous-looking films in recent memory, his origins are on the stage, and that background is actually very prominent in this film.

Plot-wise, this film tells a story that we have all seen before – the road trip movie. Specifically, it's a film about unconfident people going out on the road in order to discover themselves. And yet, screenwriters (and novelists) Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida manage to craft unique and identifiable characters and through their journey create what is essentially a parable about relationships and self-discovery. The main couple is expertly played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, who really play against type: Krasinski is known as the quiet and awkward Jim on The Office while in this film he is very confident, outgoing and funny; Rudolph, on the other hand, is known for her outrageous roles on Saturday Night Live while in this film she plays a more mellow and peaceful character. The story establishes a series of supporting characters who are also expertly played by a very impressive supporting cast; Maggie Gyllenhaal and Allison Janney particularly stand out as friends of Krasinski and Rudolph, respectively, who provide very opposite views about life and long-term relationships.

Ultimately, this is a fun, well-made, enjoyable, quirky little indie film; it's funny and charming and light-hearted while also delivering an interesting and thought-provoking parable about marriage, long-term relationships, life and the various approaches couples have to all those things. That said, I think that the film might even be too quirky and precious for its own good; these elements that often lead to such fantastic films as Little Miss Sunshine or Juno to get derided by the cynics don't often bother me, but in this film, I think that it's preciousness kind of takes away from the audience's connection with the characters. I can't quite put my finger on it, but all I know is that while the film is good, I felt a much stronger connection with the characters in another indie film from this year, (500) Days of Summer.

A Beautiful Film

[Sniper005533 · 10/10 · 30 July 2009]

...Somewhat spoilers... This is simply put one of the most beautiful films i have ever seen. I walked out of this movie with a smile on my face and a heart eager to fall in love as deeply as they did. The film begins with a pregnant couple and ends with a pregnant couple. The couple themselves grow in love while going through vastly different couples way of looking at love and parenting. This film reminded me of why if fell in love with movies in the first place. The movie has a general feel like juno, a few tearjerking moments, and a couple laugh out loud moments, and a ton of touching moments. When i saw this movie everyone laughed at the right time and everyone cried at the right times. The entire audience loved this movie and so did i. I Highly recommend this movie.

Solid "indie" romcom

[brokenimage227 · 7/10 · 30 May 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.

A Charming Journey/Roadtrip

[zerogirl42 · 10/10 · 21 June 2009]

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.

They discover that "they're not losers" after all

[the-movie-guy · 6/10 · 24 June 2009]

(Synopsis) Verona (Maya Rudolph) and Burt (John Krasinski) are an unmarried couple in their thirties, who are expecting their first child. They live in Denver close to Burt's parents, since Verona's parents had passed away. They thought their life was going great until they found out that Burt's parents were leaving the country for two years and would not be there for the birth of their grandchild. Verona and Burt decide to go on a road trip and travel around the U.S and Canada to find the perfect place to live to call home and bring up their child. They travel to Phoenix, Tucson, Madison, Montreal, and Miami where they either have relatives or friends living. Along the way, they are also looking for the perfect family as a role model for them to follow in raising their daughter. As with all new families, they discover their own way.

(My Comment) With each stop on their trip, they encounter their unsure future at being parents. As they travel around the country in search of a supporting family member, former coworkers, or college friend, what they expected usually turns out differently. They are more confused than before and see how difficult life is in raising a child. In the end they discover that "they're not losers" after all. The film delivers a good mix of hilarious comedy and human drama. Especially, the scene about the fruity taste is something you will never forget. There are plenty of funny scenes, but there are also some serious introspective moments as well. The movie doesn't offer any solutions to life except that you are on your own, and that is the way it should be. The character development was good, because you feel for them, and you want them to succeed. In the end they learn more about themselves as their love and their baby grows. I think any young couple can relate to this movie. (Focus Features, Run Time 1:38, Rated R) (6/10)

Conscious uncoupling

[Cosmolotov · 1/10 · 13 July 2014]

Two people with no chemistry and no appeal pretend to be the best imperfect normal couple and bore us all to death with their utterly contrived road trip to find the best imperfect home to raise their unborn child. Along the way they meet other parents that are mostly unbelievably flawed so that best imperfect couple can feel sensibly smug and constantly reaffirm their Gwyneth and Chris commitment. To my mind, this is Middle England's hideous 'aren't we nice' banality and passive aggressive self congratulation brought to the USA alongside a soundtrack that sounds like it's chosen by an old man trying to be an unironic hipster. There is no story, just a thin weave of pointless anecdotes. There's absolutely no reason to watch this and it's in danger of making one stay celibate and childless rather than have a life so dull. The most uninteresting, nay painfully tedious film I've ever seen. Lord save us good movie fans from such arrogant mistakes.

A tedious bore

[Gordon-11 · 16 December 2009]

This film is about an expecting couple who travels around the country to try to find a perfect place to start their family.

"Away We Go" is slow and plain. The characters and the story are not developed enough to make me care about them. I almost feel that the couple is being irresponsible by travelling around according to their moment's fancy. I just cannot connect with their mindset at all, and hence I find the whole film a pointless and tedious bore. The only redeeming feature is Maggie Gyllenhaal's enchanting performance as a new age person, which consolidates her already strong CV.

"Away We Go" is such a disappointment, especially when compared to the strength of Sam Mendes' last effort, "Revolutionary Road".

Charming...

[namashi_1 · 7/10 · 11 November 2010]

Sam Mendes is one of the most talented filmmakers in Cinema today. And in 'Away We Go', he proves his status once again. This Travelling fare shows a charming side of Mendes.

'Away We Go' is about two partners, who are in their early thirties and struggling to meet daily needs. They are about to have a baby. Due to some circumstances, then decide to shift from place to place, which will eventually let them find out which is the right place for them and their about-to-be-born child.

'Away We Go' works because of Mendes's Direction, the Performances and it's innovative Screenplay. The lead characters are wonderfully penned, and the journey they embark on, the people they meet, their realizations, come out with complete honesty. Writers Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida deserve a pat for their work. Mendes is in top form, as mentioned before.

Performance-Wise: John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph are the life of the show. They bring in so much of honesty, charm and genuineness in their parts. Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels are effective. Maggie Gyllenhaal is absolutely fantastic. Others are perfect in their parts.

On the whole, This ain't no masterpiece, but without a shed of doubt, a charming and down-to-earth story of two partners expecting their first child. Thumbs Up!

Needed: synonyms for "twee"

[Chris Knipp · 6/10 · 23 June 2009]

This third and least successful screen attempt by English director Sam Mendes to show us what America is like comes from a screenplay written by Dave Eggers and his wife, Vendela Vida. This is a road trip involving a thirty-something couple, Burt Farlander (John Krasinski) and Verona de Tessant (Maya Rudolph). Verona is six months pregnant. Verona's parents are dead. Burt's (Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels) whom they've moved to Denver to be near, announce that they are going to live in Antwerp, Belgium for two years, starting just before the baby will be born. They go out in search of family or support visiting siblings, college friends, former coworkers, thinking of finding a place where they can live with their new baby and have some human warmth nearby.

We know how these American road trips go, from David O. Russell's to Payne Anderson's. They're tours of absurdity, examinations of questionable lifestyles. This time the attention is on aberrations in child-rearing. The couple winds up settling near no one, taking, it appears, an empty, dilapidated house in a southern mansion style in an unspecified place (Florida, perhaps, or Louisiana?), which opens up front and back to let the light and air through and looks out on a body of water. They have three months to get it ready. They decide it's "perfect." Despite going through the motions of self-questioning, they are exceedingly pleased with themselves and their prolonged immaturity. They know they're not losers. Everybody else is.

Some of the families Burt and Verona visit are unpleasant, and the others are unhappy. All are drawn with a very heavy hand. This works for some of the actors. Alison Janney is effective as the boorish wife of a drunken husband, a mother who talks crudely and abusively of her own two children right in front of them, demonstrating that to the kids, her words are just "white noise.' The airport arrival tells it all. She goes on about how fat Verona is, and her husband (Jim Gaffigan) takes the gift wine out of Burt's paper bag and goes to look for an opener. Maggie Gyllenhaal is impressive as "LN," an insufferable woman (but they're all insufferable!) with lots of money who shares creepy ideas about family togetherness and sex with her husband (Josh Hamilton). Despite the caricature, Gyllenhaal is creepily subtle.

It's hard to look forward to the next visit as Burt and Verona go from Denver to Phoenix to Tucson to Madison to Montreal to Florida, and none of the places are distinguished from each other except by temperature. One airport turns the couple away on suspicion that Verona is eight months pregnant rather than six, and they take the train. They have a succession of rental cars and everywhere they go they are plied with liquor.

If things could possibly go any more downhill that comes in Montreal, where Burt and Verona love the family they visit, who have six adopted children, till they go to amateur night at a bar that has pole dancing and the husband (Chris Messina) reveals that his wife (Melanie Lynskey) just had one of many miscarriages and that they are both miserable.

Earlier in an airport a lady comes up with a boy she is obtrusively instructing, and then she asks him a question and he recites a little speech full of horrible menace -- something about trying to smother his sister. Does this mean parents who push their kids too hard to learn stuff will create monsters? What kind of nonsense is that?

Throughout the screenplay is a weird combination of keen observation -- it does give some sense of capturing the repetitious and bland rhythms of middle-class thirty-something speech patterns -- and completely artificial, mean, doctrinaire caricature. In Russell's 'Flirting with Disaster' there was a search for parents in which the satirical encounters were hilarious and unexpected. In Alexander Payne's 'Sideways' (let's skip over 'About Schmidt;' the less aid the better), the incidents are genuine revelations of character. We don't really learn anything about Burt and Verona. I'm not even convinced that they do what they say to make money. Her parents are dead (a reflection of Eggers' own early loss of parents?) and his are self-centered and soon to be absent. The others we'd rather not know about. When they go to see Burt's brother in Florida (Paul Schneider) it's because his wife has left him, and he is simply incapable of making the best of it. Another example of how marriage and child-rearing can go wrong.

At the heart of the story are, of course, Burt and Verona, and there's no there there. The actors are pleasant enough, but what their characters have to say to each other, with all its self-absorption and unendurable cuteness, should have stayed with them. To talk about this movie you need to get a thesaurus and look up synonyms for "twee." The "emo" music is sweet and obtrusive, treacle on top of the icing.

Are we "F'd" Up?

[ferguson-6 · 7/10 · 22 June 2009]

Greetings again from the darkness. With American Beauty, Road to Perdition and last year's Revolutionary Road on his resume, director Sam Mendes (hubby to Kate Winslet) has proved he often sees the dark and bleak in situations. He is not exactly a glass half-full kind of guy. Although not a complete departure from his standard of downer, Away We Go offers a glimmer of hope through the eyes of a young couple.

We are treated to the most unusual prospect of a road trip involving a very pregnant woman (played by the terrific Maya Rudolph of SNL fame). She and her baby's father, John Krasinski (The Office), take off on a search to find the best place to live and raise their kid. This trip leads to a series of vignettes that can best be described as NUTS! The motivation for the trip comes when Burt's (Krasinski) parents, played by Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels, announce they are moving to Budapest one month before the baby is due ... and couldn't be any happier. So on the road Burt and Verona (Maya) meet up with old friend Allison Janney, who is a loud, foul-mouthed woman stuck in a nowhere marriage with two kids who realized their mother never lost that self-centeredness most grow out of. Her husband, played by comedian Jim Gaffigan, is just bitter and miserable.

Quaint Madison brings the "not from this planet" Maggie Gyllenhaal (Burt's not really cousin) who seems stuck somewhere between the late 60's and, let's say ... the planet Mars. Convinced strollers are the devil's work, this segment brings some of the funniest moments in the movie.

Finally, Montreal brings the couple some hope. At least initially. Chris Messina and Melanie Lynskey have built a family through adoption, though we learn, it still isn't quite enough. This segment offers one of the film's finest and most bare to the bone moments of true life.

While there is more to the film (Tuscon and Miami to be exact), the point is that Mendes and this fascinating script deliver real life and proof of the adage ... Nobody's perfect ... oh, and one of my favorites ... other people are weird.

I wish this film would find a wider audience, not just for the wonderful script and journey, but also for Maya Rudolph's excellent work as a real person looking for answers.

Go see Away We Go, do, its got style, humor, and imagination

[inkblot11 · 8/10 · 7 July 2009]

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. .

On the road.

[Galina_movie_fan · 7/10 · 13 July 2012]

I am a fan of good comedies and independent smaller movies that are not about action and flashy special effects (which I also enjoy) but about looking closely at the characters, exploring the lives and desires of the ordinary people, and finding kindness, love, and gentle humor in every day situations. I like to follow the sympathetic characters on the journey of self-discovery and in search for the perfect place for them to live - just like the couple in Sam Mendes' comedy "Away We Go" 2009). Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) are 30-something educated, independent, intelligent, and what is quite unusual in the modern movies, truly loving each other unmarried couple who have been together for years and expecting their first child. The movie takes them on the road trip all around America. They leave Denver after having found out that Burt's cheerful and self-absorbed parents (Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels) who live close by will be moving out of country to spend two years in Antwerp, Belgium and wont'be present at their grandchild's birth.

Burt and Verona will be visiting friends and relatives in Phoenix, Tucson, Madison, Montreal, and Miami trying to find the perfect place to raise their daughter and to be with the soul-mates. Sounds like a perfect independent comedy and fun, and I was ready to love it. After I finished watching, I see that it was supposed to be funny and touching, personal and realistic, subtle and offbeat, and it sure was at times but it did not completely succeed for me. I think it tried too hard. I found some of the characters not realistic and funny but obnoxious over the top cardboard figures, and some jokes felt awkward. The film looks nice - Sam Mendes has a good eye for American beauty and he brings it it in every film he has made, and Away We Go is not en exception.

Two main characters, expecting parents Burt and Verona as played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph are believable and likable even if not always interesting. There is a story behind Verona's constant refusal to get married even though Burt keeps insisting and she is in love with him and sees him as her soul-mate. I assume it has to do with the death of her parents and the memories of the true happiness and closeness she and her younger sister had with them. Even if there is more than decade since they are gone, she still copes with their absence from her life. I read that Dave Eggers, the writer of the script, was 21 and living in Lake Forest, Illinois when he lost both his parents to cancer five weeks apart, leaving Eggers to raise his 8-year-old brother, Christopher. I think that he wrote the script that caught Mendes's attention coming to terms with his own past and his loss.

The best, the most moving scenes of the film are these where Verona opens up and recalls the scene of pure happiness from her childhood. Another memorable scene for me was the ending of the film. Some can see it as melodramatic but I think it was an appropriate and fitting end to the journey in search for Home. Away we Go is not a bad movie but as the rather short road movie, it is abrupt and inconsistent - some characters that we meet and their stories are quite interesting but we don't have time enough to learn about them because away we go to the next destination of Burt's and Verona's journey.

Sweet!!!

[hughman55 · 10/10 · 9 July 2010]

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.

A fun little independent movie

[cricketbat · 6/10 · 15 August 2018]

Away We Go is a fun little independent movie that proves that John Krasinski can do more than The Office and Maya Rudolph can do more than SNL - they both give great performances, as does the supporting cast. Away We Go has a realistic feel, even with the eccentric characters. It's not a perfect movie, but it has heart and I liked that.

Sam Mendes Delivers Yet Again (and even more than before)

[Serge_Zehnder · 10/10 · 25 October 2009]

Aah, what a movie. With a great sigh did I sit in the theater and let the images of this road trip about a very normal couple of our times wash over me. While Alexi Murdoch's beautiful song "Wait" ended the movie I suddenly realized, that neither "American Beauty" nor "Road to Perdition" or even "Revolutionary Road" touched me as much as this quirky and elegiac tale of parenthood and identity. This is Mendes' least ambitious movie but it shows all his strengths as a director and is so incredibly funny, sad and true that it has found a straight way into my heart.

I can imagine all the criticism hurled at the protagonists as poignantly scripted by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vega. Some say they behave snobbishly or indifferent to the supporting cast of characters they encounter during their journey. Which is A.) completely false and B.) sometimes very deserved. Caricatures some of them may be, but they are also very much grounded in reality.

"Away We Go" doesn't strive for social upheaval, or looks to uncover the deeper meanings of our existence, and by not trying to do so achieves the most important thing: It tells a story that breathes and lives, with people we can identify and love, instead of just watching as they pass us by.

Fairly Good sans the Folksy Interlude Music

[pc95 · 7/10 · 20 November 2010]

About the only thing in "Away We Go" that detracted was an overuse of Folksy Interlude music that was employed far too much and for too long. When music starts trying to take the place of story or dialog it becomes obtrusive. With that comment out of the way, this Sam Mendes directed movie had some great scenes and poignant dialog spotted throughout. By far the best comedically was visiting the cousin flower hippie gal Gyllanthal who seems like a perfect fit for her own bugged out weirdo character. We've all met those types to some degree, and the extreme of her non-sense was great. The leads in the movie kept the trek moving, and some of the cut-away humor (for instance in the train and car) was well-timed. Recommended minus some of the music.

So bad I don't know where to begin

[rivergirl301 · 1/10 · 24 June 2010]

I had heard good things about this movie and went into it with high hopes. Those hopes faded quickly. I love The Office. LOVE IT. But John Krasinski cannot act. I found that out when I watched Away We Go. I can only figure that John K. *is* Jim on The Office, IRL, and therefore that character requires no acting ability.

The characters are supposed to be 33 and 34. Maya Rudolph looked 54 and John K. looked 24. It was really distracting. I don't know what the dumb get-up John's character had on--the awful beard, glasses from 1960, wild hair (but he was not a hippie--the movie has fun with making fun of hippies later on)--was about. Worst of all, there is zero chemistry between these two. They were not believable as a couple. They may as well have been in separate rooms reading their lines to a wall as far as their acting abilities and chemistry went.

The couple mentions early in the movie that they realize they are a couple of "f*uck-ups." After all, they have a cardboard window. In the next scene, they are jetting across the US and Canada, staying in hotels and buying groceries for their hosts--a couple of rich f*ck-ups I guess. They are jetting across the US and Canada to find a place to raise their child, with people who they will have a sense of family with. So of course, they run to visit people they barely know, should have known were absolutely obnoxious and in no way appropriate to have around children, or people don't know at all. If this is their logic in life, they really are a couple of f*ck-ups.

The "wedding vows" on the trampoline did it for me and that's when I turned it off.

Away we go from the standard romcom formula

[rooprect · 12 August 2014]

To me, an "indie" film is a movie with a budget under $10,000 and where the director's mom does all the catering. "Away We Go", with an internationally acclaimed director like Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead) and a budget of $17 million, doesn't exactly fit that description so you won't hear me calling it an "indie". What I will say is that it definitely departs from the standard Hollywood romcom formula which is a nice surprise.

The standard Hollywood romcom formula goes something like: (1) boy meets girl, (2) they deny they're in love, (3) they admit they're in love, (4) they get into a fight and fall out of love, (5) they get back together in a big climactic weepy scene and live happily ever after. Well, "Away We Go" has absolutely none of the above. That itself should get your attention if you're looking for something different.

So what's it about? It's about a man & woman in love who travel around the country looking for a place to call home. The drama & dynamics are not within their relationship, but instead they observe drama & dynamics (and quite often hysterics) from the couples they visit along the way. So essentially they are like us, the audience, impartial observers in a wacky story... except that the story happens all around them. It's a pretty novel approach to the romcom, more like a road movie than anything else, and yet it delves deeply into questions of love, marriage and relationships.

In case you didn't know, Maya Rudolph's character is pregnant throughout the film and the themes focus heavily on children: how people raise them, how people FAIL at raising them, and how people try admirably in unlucky circumstances. But you don't have to be baby crazy to connect with this film. More than anything, it makes us analyze our own upbringing and how our parents' methods affected us.

I sincerely hope none of you had it as bad as what we see in the movie. There's some pretty hilariously bad parenting going on here. And that's where the movie draws most of its comedy from. It's a very satirical film, light on punchlines but heavy on sarcasm. Most of the (bad) parents we see are caricatures of certain extremes: the negligent rich parents who are more interested in their home decorations than their children, the creepy midlife-crisis parents including the mother who is ready to have an affair with any man with a pulse, the hippy new age parents who share their bed (and evidently their nocturnal marital activities) with their children... yeah there's some hilariously creepy stuff here.

But just when you start thinking this movie is a total absurdist comedy, it hits you with some very powerful, sobering moments. In particular, in the latter half there's a very sudden dark moment when we wake up and realize that relationships and parenting sometimes come with some heavy baggage. The scene begins with one of the mothers doing a pole dancing routine at a strip club amateur night (hilarious right?) but soon becomes one of the most darkly emotional moments in any romcom. That's when I made up my mind that I really liked this film.

The scene I just mentioned featured a great song from The Velvet Underground "Oh! Sweet Nuthin" which earns it more bonus points. I've heard people rave about the soundtrack of "Away We Go" but honestly I didn't really notice anything exceptional until that scene. I later looked up the soundtrack and saw that all the songs are acoustic guitar pieces by Alexi Murdoch except 1 song by George Harrison ("What is life?"), one by The Stranglers ("Golden Brown") and of course the Velvet Underground tune. So basically if you like Alexi Murdoch you'll love the soundtrack.

I would recommend this as a good date movie for a couple that's been together for a while and pondering the future together. It doesn't have the standard start-of-a-relationship drama that's prevalent in most romcoms, but instead it's more like what happens *after* the standard romcom stuff. Similar movies about the "2nd stage" of love include Miranda July's quirky "The Future" which centers around a young couple who is adopting a shelter cat, and for the slightly older late-30something crowd there's the underrated 90s gem by Billy Crystal "Forget Paris" which is almost like a sequel to "When Harry Met Sally". All of these non-formulaic romcoms are well worth checking out.