Away We Go
Summer 2010
July 4, 2010 at 8pm
Acadia Cinema's Al Whittle Theatre
450 Main Street, Wolfville, NS
Directed by Sam Mendes
Written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida
Starring John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Jeff Daniels, Maggie Gyllenhaal
It was only a matter of time before acclaimed theatre and film director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) made a road movie, and now the Oscar-winning director takes us on an intimate ride across the continent with a charming pair of parents-to-be.
“Saturday Night Live”’s Maya Rudolph (A Prairie Home Companion) plays Veronica, a pregnant woman who is entering her final trimester when her nerdy but affable partner, Burt (John Krasinski, “The Office”, Shrek the Third), takes her for dinner with his parents (hilariously played by screen icons Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara). Burt’s parents quickly inform the young couple of their sudden decision to move to Belgium, thereby giving Burt and Veronica no practical reason to remain in the neighbourhood. With friends and relatives beckoning from across the country, they leave their tiny house and hit the road to find an ideal place to raise their child.
So begins the search for a new home, and so begins our continental tour of North America. As the pair connects with old friends and workmates in cities from Phoenix to Montreal, Mendes works in some great performances from the talented cast he has accrued. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s turn as a narcissistic, uber-feminist new-age professor named simply LN is hilarious, while Josh Hamilton and Allison Janney also have great fun with Vendela Vida and Dave Eggers’s laugh-a-minute script. But it is the way Rudolph and Krasinski subtly play off each other that is the movie’s real draw. Veronica and Burt have a serious dilemma, and the way they deal with the good and bad examples of parenting they witness during their travels invests us more fully in their relationship. Like any parents, they want what is best for their baby, and through the amazing performances of Rudolph and Krasinski, so do we. They elevate an already extremely competent indie comedy to something with more depth. There is powerful chemistry here, and the warmth these two generate onscreen is palpable.
“Written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida and directed by Sam Mendes, Away We Go plays like a picaresque ode to the young and ambivalent. Buoyed by a lyrical, happy-sad soundtrack by the Scottish singer-songwriter Alexi Murdoch and infused with a wry sense of ironic detachment, this is a movie that lopes along at its own quiet, quirky pace. In not just accepting but celebrating mid-life ambivalence, Away We Go feels like a particularly welcome respite from the false happily-ever-afters that pass for couples’ stories in most mainstream movies.” The Washington Post