Away we go

Directed by: Sam Mendes
Written by: Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida

I would call it a dramedy—much like Mendes’s American Beauty—only with an indie aesthetic. Take Juno, Smart People, and The Royal Tenenbaums as a template. You have your basic dysfunctional families, dry or dark humour, quirky characters and a somewhat obscure soundtrack. That’s what Away We Go is in a nutshell.

I might be biased because I am partial to Eggers an author, I but really enjoyed a lot of the dialogue and character development in the film. The story is about a couple in their early thirties who are about to have their first child. When Bert (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) hear that Bert’s parents (Catharine O’Hara and Jeff Daniels) are moving to Europe and won’t be around for the baby, they decide to look for a new city to live in. The rest of the film is a big road trip, as the couple looks for the ideal place to build their new life together. Along the way, they meet up with weird friends and family, and find themselves wondering if they’re cut out for parenthood after all.

For material that is aimed at a slightly older crowd, there is a ton of crass humour, which made it seem the filmmakers were trying a little too hard to make the audience laugh. While the supporting cast is supposed to create conflict and self-reflection for the couple, they’re sometimes too focused on comic relief, up until the end when the movie suddenly gets heavier.

For a movie that looks like it tries to live up to Juno, it falls short in poignancy. Away We Go is a feel-good movie, but one that I think is only rental-worthy.

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