Focus Features

Written By:

Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida

“Away We Go” is the latest film from Oscar winning director Sam Mendes, who has made a successful film career crafting films which touch on normal people experiencing the difficulties of daily suburban life.  In the 1999 Academy Award winning Best Picture, “American Beauty” and 2008′s jaw-dropping “Revolutionary Road”, Mendes peeled back the layers of suburban life and offered unflinching looks at what it means to compromise yourself and exist with others in an effort to live the “happy life.”  Less jarring, and more sweet-natured, “Away We Go” is a distant cousin to these previous films, and as a result, is a much easier watch – albeit at times a pandering and heavy-handed one.

John Krasinski (Jim from TV’s “The Office”) and Maya Rudolph (“Saturday Night Live”) star as Burt and Verona, an unmarried couple who are expecting their first child.  Burt makes a living as a 33-year old insurance agent who has to deepen his voice in an effort to sound legitimate to his bosses.  Rudolph plays Verona, a 34-year old freelance artist who keeps her emotions close to the vest, and can only truly let her guard down with Burt near.  A couple deeply in love, they are nervous and excited about Verona’s final trimester and the next imminent chapter set to be written in their lives together.  However, after learning that Burt’s parents are inexplicably moving to Belgium a mere month prior to the baby’s birth, Verona suggests picking up stakes and visiting family and friends as a means of finding a new place to call home.  Along the way, Burt and Verona encounter various different family dynamics in their impromptu journey across North America and the results are definitely a mixed bag for those watching.

The screenplay from Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida straddles a fine line in depicting Burt and Verona’s encounters.  Burt and Verona are instantly likeable, down-to-earth personalities who if they lived next door to you, would be frequent dinner guests.  Soon after heading out to their first destination, it becomes slightly difficult to understand if these caricatures they encounter are to be judged, condemned, or carefully considered.  On occasion, the approach works.  At other times, the characters are so over-the-top that the film seems to lose the genuineness and kindness that Burt and Verona represent.

“Away We Go” could best be described as a roller coaster ride and unfortunately, that ride is something the film cannot completely sustain.  Maya Rudolph shows a depth of acting that she has not been able to show previously, following her years of comedic success on “Saturday Night Live.”  If you are a fan of John Krasinski’s work on “The Office”as Jim, you will get Jim here, only with a fully grown beard.

At its conclusion, I am not entirely sure if Burt and Verona have changed in any tangible way upon the end of their journey, but “Away We Go” succeeds more than it fails and definitely has its heart in the right place.

Should I See It?

YES

If you are looking for a well-acted, smaller scale comedy/drama that has characters and moments that the average viewer can generally relate to.

NO

It does share traits of a stereotypical “indie” film – the increasingly distracting singer/songwriter score, the borderline heavy-handed message, lots of dialogue, which can be off-putting to lots of moviegoers.