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.
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.