Away We Go (***½)

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Starring: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Carmen Ejogo, Jeff Daniels, Catherina O’Hara, Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Melanie Lynskey, Chris Messina, Paul Schneider

Seen: April 11^th 2010

***½ Out of ****

Away We Go is Sam Mendes’ 5^th feature length film, and it follows some heavyweights: American Beauty, Road to Perdition (a personal favourite), Jarhead, and Revolutionary Road. This is the most upbeat of the five, and also goes in yet a new direction for Mendes, as he can now also add the road-trip movie to list. This is also one of the better road trip movies I have ever seen, because it tells such an everyday story in such a quietly beautiful way.

Burt Farlander (Krasinski) and Verona De Tessant (Rudolph) are 34-year olds headed for parenthood, with Verona looking 10 months pregnant at 6. They do not have much, but aren’t worried at all. Burt and Verona live where they do only because it’s near Burt’s parents and when Jerry (Daniels) and Gloria (O’Hara) inform them of their move to Belgium for two years only a month before the birth of the baby, Burt and Verona decide to go look for a better place to raise their daughter, and set of to visit old friends, colleagues, and school mates all over the USA.

Their visits seem normal enough, but you soon realise there’s something deeper in the portrayal of the friends and situations than simple visits. Each represents some fear or view that a pregnant couple might have on their future as parents. Their first visit is to Phoenix, where they meet up with Verona’s old boss, Lily (Janney), and her husband Lowell (Gaffigan), both completely off their rocker. Lily says anything in front of her kids, including mercilessly mocking them, and claims to them it’s all white noise while Lowell is one glass of wine away from being an alcoholic. Their second visit is to Tucson, where Verona’s sister Grace (Ejogo) lives. They reminisce on their mother in a beautifully touching scene and express the hope of being as good a mother. Next up is Madison, where they visit an old friend of Burt’s, LN (Gyllenhaal). LN and her husband/partner Roderick has extremely strange views on parenting and abhor strollers, among other things. The end of this visit is laugh-out-loud funny. The fourth visit is to old college friends of the couple, Tom (Messina) and Munch (Lynskey), who fill their house of adopted children with love. But this too is underlined with tragedy.

One more visit before they reach their final destination, Burt and Verona go to Miami, to support Burt’s brother Courtney (Schneider), whose wife has left him and their young teenage daughter. Here the reason for Burt and Verona not being married yet is also cemented but their relationship is rooted here with a definite finality. Verona speaks for the first time about her childhood and long-gone parents, moving her so much that they decide to drive to what is only indicated as Home, with no city name, the place where Verona was raised, to see whether they find the heart there.

Away We Go is a beautiful and touching tale about the doubts and worries that accompany bringing someone into this world. The leads successfully and quietly convey the story without overpowering it. The tone is slow and striking, with the occasionally crass humour lowering your defences to let the humanity in. Away We Go is a gem that will sadly be missed by many because of its low profile release. If you get the chance, go see this movie…