‘Away We Go’ Review

Release Date – 6/5/09 (limited)

Burt and Verona are a happy couple who find out they are about to have their first child. They don’t have much money and they live in a small trailer close to Burt’s parents’ house. Six months into the pregnancy Burt and Verona go to have a nice dinner with his folks. They find out the grandparents will be leaving the country a month before the baby is born and will be gone for 2 years. This is a major blow to Burt and Verona but his parents seem unphased. So they hatch up some wild scheme to travel the country in search of the perfect new place to live. Along the way they meet up with friends and family each bringing their own unique take on parenthood. The movie is very funny and will definitely keep your interest. The main actors are great and the side characters are really good too. It just really had no big conclusion to sum things up and kind of left me wanting something different.

John Krasinski (Jim Halpert from The Office) plays Burt. He’s an odd duck. But I found him to be the funniest character. He’s just a weird guy dealing with his girlfriend’s pregnancy. He’s very easy going and just along for the ride. Maya Rudolph (SNL alum) played the worrisome Verona. Her hormones are going wild yet she believes something good will come out of their nationwide journey. I didn’t know she was such a good actor but she pulls off the role nicely. Those two carry the bulk of the movie but the side characters are also great. Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara play Burt’s parents. One of the funniest scenes in the movie is the dinner where they tell Burt and Verona that they’re leaving the country before the baby is born. They just don’t care about this kid. Jeff Daniels was especially funny throwing out such positive words as great, stupendous, and superb faking excitement to everything his son had to tell him. More great side characters were Maggie Gyllenhaal as LN, a “cousin” of Burt. She’s a hippie and along with her boyfriend try passing off all of these weird parenting tips to Burt and Verona. The whole scene in their weird hippie house is hilarious. But along with the great side characters there were some annoying ones such as Allison Janney and Jim Gaffigan as Lily and Lowell. Janney was overly annoying to the point where I just wanted her scenes to end. I thought Gaffigan would be good since he’s a comedian, but he was a depressed character just talking in monotone while his wife blabbed on and on.

The movie is directed by Sam Mendes who also did American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, and Revolutionary Road. I can only compare Away We Go to Revolutionary Road. The only reason I can put them in the same category is because the theme of relationships. Revolutionary Road is a depressing look at an American couple having serious problems while Away We Go is a refreshing upbeat comedy about a happy couple in love. That’s the only comparison because I would say this is Mendes’ first straight up comedy. Besides a couple of annoying characters, the ending was the other downfall. The whole time I was watching the film I was thinking “How is this going to end?” Mendes has some shock endings in his other films so I was thinking we COULD see something like that. But the movie kind of just ends when they run out of places to go. I did like how the movie is set up into chapters complete with LARGE white text popping up on the screen saying “Away to…” whatever town or city they go to next. All in all, it’s a good road trip movie with a lot of funny moments. I would recommend this flick for a couple in need of a good laugh.

IMDB – 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 57%
Movie Wiseguys – 7.5/10