AWAY WE GO
E1 ENTERTAINMENT
RELEASED 18 September 2009
This is director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) second movie released this year, and while ‘Revolutionary Road’ saw Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio slowly destroy each other in an unsatisying marriage, ‘Away We Go’ is very much the opposite version of the same story. Things are helped by being set in the modern day, far removed from the tight social constraints of the 1950’s.
Early thirty-somethings Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) have three months to go before the birth of their first child. The only reason they’re living in a run-down house in cold, desolate Colorado is because Burt’s parents (Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara) are nearby. Over dinner, the eccentric parents inform Burt and Verona that they’ve decided to move to Antwerp for a few years. Shocked and disappointed, the expectant couple decide to go on a road trip and move somewhere new. With Verona’s parents dead, they can choose to be near old friends or brothers and sisters. Some haven’t had family yet, and some are a few years ahead. The common thread between them all is that everybody has differing views on parenthood and responsibilty. So there’s Verona’s old friend Lily (Allison Janney) in Phoenix who can’t seem to remember where she put her kids; Verona’s sister Grace (Carmen Ejogo) in Tucson who can’t even find the right guy; Burt’s childhood friend Ellen (Maggie Gyllenhaal) in Wisconsin who’s become the biggest new-age hippy you could ever dread to meet; old friends Tom (Chris Messina) and Munch (Melanie Lynskey) in Montreal have adopted a multi-cultural family; and Tom’s brother Courtney (Paul Schneider) in Miami has suddenly found himself facing a bigger family challenge as a single parent.
Maybe it’s because I’m in the target audience for this movie (recently becoming a father myself) and can identify with all the varying styles of parenthood and problems in the film, but I found ‘Away We Go’ to be both hilarious, touching, and honest. The film really says a lot about becoming (and being) a parent and all the responsibilties that come with that life-changing event. And it’s so funny. Have you ever thought about why it might be wrong to use a pushchair? What if you’re pushing your child away from, says the new-age mum! What about the mum who states her kids are ‘genetically predetermined, they’re screwed up in the womb.’ One dad would rather be a male seahorse because they can give birth. The leftfield characters and their bizarre views on life litter the film, and I swear I laughed more than I have in most ‘comedies’ this year. Husband and wife writing duo Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida have crafted a knockout script at the first attempt.
‘Away We Go’ is beautifully filmed by cinematographer Ellen Kuras for director Sam Mendes (American Beauty), and Mendes gets fantastic performances from his cast, as usual from the celebrated theatre director. The whole movie features an original soundtrack of guitar-based acoustic songs from Alexi Murdoch.
I rated ‘Revolutionary Road’, but ‘Away We Go’ is even better. Mendes handles actors and dialogue better than probably any other director working in Hollywood today, so it’s a pleasure to see him return to human dramas such as these rather than bigger-themed movies like ‘Road to Perdition’ and ‘Jarhead’.
FIVE OUT OF FIVE