“Away We Go”
4 out of 5 Stars
Stars: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Director: Sam Mendes
Rated R for language and some sexual content
Running Time: 97 minutes
The brilliant director of “American Beauty” and “Revolutionary Road” is known for exploring hate-spewing couples in dark tales of their doom.
But in his latest look at a relationship, Sam Mendes’ dryly funny and unassumingly dear “Away We Go,” it’s not the compatible though bewildered main twosome who are the problem. It’s the crazy relatives and friends they visit who are irredeemably dysfunctional.
Today’s tonal departure for Mendes, written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, defies genre classification. A humble amalgam of comedy and drama, this road trip of discovery is about nothing less than the journey toward self-actualization that we all find ourselves traveling in this weird, scary world.
Thankfully, even though it can make you think about that big concept and packs an emotional wallop in the end, there’s nothing very grandiose about thirtysomething slackers Burt and Verona — played by “The Office”‘s John Krasinski and “Saturday Night Live” alumna Maya Rudolph.
But they are moved to action now that Verona is very pregnant and Burt’s self-absorbed parents (hilariously played by Catherine O’Hara and Jeff Daniels) are moving away. Verona and Burt have no ties, no reason to stay in their dump of a dwelling in Colorado. So they travel from one end of North American to another in order to, paraphrasing a Talking Heads song, “Find a city. Find themselves a city to live in.”
They also seem to be looking for some inspiration on how to live. But they sure have trouble finding it with Verona’s horny/humiliating former co-worker (an uninhibited Allison Janney) in Arizona; Burt’s pretentiously progressive old childhood friend in Wisconsin (Maggie Gyllenhaal, satirically genius as a strident example of the lefty lifestyle run amuck); the infertility-stricken college pals in Montreal; and, Burt’s recently dumped brother in Florida (Paul Schneider). Everybody they know is either deeply sad or insanely narcissistic.
Over the course of the odyssey, Burt and Verona begin to realize that they have to look to each other and must forge their own special path in order to be happy.
“Away We Go” is hardly a barn burner, especially not when you compare it to the fast-paced, plot-driven extravaganzas that pass for cinema this time of year. But Rudolph and Krasinski are so touching together without ever being cloying and cheeky as they observe, but without ever being mean-spirited. And so is this movie.
