Director: Sam Mendes
Starring: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph & Maggie Gyllenhaal
Warm, funny and incredibly romantic, Away We Go is very enjoyable drama/road trip movie featuring some great performances from its cast. Away We Go is a very successful feel good movie.
Having already seen success with previous dramas that looked at the promise and the dark side to the American Dream in films such as American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, Sam Mendes latest effort is an altogether more light-hearted and charming affair filled with romance and hope. Away We Go, written by married writers Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, is a feel good film that manages to be almost effortlessly charming without engaging in schmaltz whilst also handling some serious themes such as youth and responsibility.
Bert (Krasinski) and Verona (Rudolph) are a thirty-something couple who find themselves suddenly facing parenthood. With Burt’s parents moving away to Belgium just months before the baby’s due date, Burt and Verona find themselves alone and realise that their lack on ties to where they currently live means they can choose to move anywhere in the country to settle down and start their family. Travelling across America visiting old family and friends to see if living near any would offer them the environment that is right for them, the couple experience various different lifestyles and parenting styles that help them decide what it is that feels right to them and where they would feel most at home.
While episodic in nature and featuring some characters that are near caricatures such as Maggie Gyllenhaal’s New Age mother, Away We Go manages to overcome such minor faults and entertain greatly in spite of them. Criticism has been made over the film’s depiction of it’s central couple of Bert and Verona due to them being portrayed as a loving couple with no apparent conflicts between them and with them also being regular portrayed as having a superior outlook to that of any other couple they encounter throughout the film and while factually this is true, emotionally it feels good. The warm, loving relationship of Bert and Verona is incredibly romantic and still feels natural for them thanks to the performances of Krasinski and Rudolph and that a film dares portray a central relationship as one that does not suffer deep internal conflicts is actually refreshing. That some of the friends and family and styles of parenting that Bert and Verona do encounter are fairly stereotypical of the lifestyle they are representing whether it be the New Age philosophy of Bert’s sister or the casual belittling of her children by Verona’s old boss, there are however more complex relationships such as Bert’s brother now facing life as a single parent and Bert and Verona’s old college friends struggling to conceive children of their own and instead adopting. Regardless of whether the parents they meet are complex or simple representations, each is enjoyable thanks to the cast and how well each relates to the attitudes of Bert and Verona whilst also, on occasions, being very funny.
Leading the cast of Away We Go is John Krasinski (of the US TV version of The Office) and Maya Rudolph (a former Saturday Night Live performer). Both deliver very charming, believable performances. Krasinski is instantly loveable as the doting Bert and Rudolph is especially impressive as Verona and manages to convey as mush feeling with a glance or a thoughtful pause as others could only achieve with the aid of lots of dialogue. That the pair also has great chemistry together making their character’s relationship all the more enjoyable and believable. Supported by some memorable performances from the likes of Catherine O’Hara and Jeff Daniels as Bert’s less than thoughtful parents, a wonderfully entertaining Alison Janney as Verona’s old boss with a gleeful acceptance of the pitfalls of marriage and parenthood and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Bert’s sister whose embrace of the New Age mother stereotype in which her character is conceived to represent is filled with humour. Chris Messina and Melanie Lynskey bring smiles and tears with their performances as Bert and Verona’s old college friends whilst Paul Schneider and Carmen Ejogo relate very well with Krasinski and Rudolph as Bert’s brother and Verona’s sister respectively.
Overall, Away We Go is charming, funny and romantic. It is a feel good film that achieves its goals almost effortlessly and without going overboard with schmaltz thanks to a witty script and an excellent cast, especially the lovable John Krasinski and impressive Maya Rudolph. Only the harshest of cynics could fail to won over by this film. Wonderful.
Rating: 4/5
