Away We Go

So I just watched the latest Sam Mendes film Away We Go. It was a pleasant surprise to not have the normal 3 year wait between works from Mendes, but kind of a drag to just see him drawing from the same relationship theme he uses in almost all of his films.

The film is about Burt Farlander (John Krasinski, The Office) and Verona de Tessant (Maya Rudolph, SNL) trying to figure out how to live in this crazy world. Verona's pregnant and the couple had been hoping to have the help of Burt's parents with raising the kid. But get this! Burt's parents are moving to Antwerp, leaving Burt and Verona in the dust to raise the baby on their own. But there is a light, this seemingly horrible situation allows our protagonists to relocate to wherever they may please. What follows is a sleugh of incredibly well written supporting roles and looks into each characters pre-each other past.

With a hilarious and down right adorable script by Dave Eggers and his wife Vendela Vida, this film touches up on the reality that many couples are facing in the current economy. It contains characters that the majority of the population could relate to, but sadly these characters are only in the film for about 10 minutes tops. I guess my major gripe with the film was the fact that all my favorite characters were supporting roles. Jeff Daniels, who plays Burt's father, is hilarious and plays his role as a dad perfectly. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays a Wisconsin New Ager so perfectly that I found myself hating her but constantly wanting more. And it's not that John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph are bad in the film, they play their roles almost perfectly. John plays a slightly more perverted version of his character in The Office, constantly reassuring the fact that Verona will still have boobs after the baby. And Maya Rudolph plays the gentle soul of the relationship, constantly looking for Burt's love. On their own, their performances are great. The thing that I had a hard time believing is their love for each other. They kept saying how in love they were, but the emotions weren't backing it up. This allowed for me to constantly forget that they were together not because Verona was pregnant, but because they were madly in love with each other. And if it weren't for the constant "I Love You"s, I may have thought they were just childhood friends.

All in all, the script is very funny and the performances are excellent. And Sam Mendes' typical film style is clear throughout (especially in the final 15 minutes where there may be only 4 sentences of dialogue [see The Road to Perdition]). I give this film a 4 out of 5.