Monday, January 21, 2013

#15 Away We Go (2009)

Directed by Sam Mendes.


We were recommended (and in fact loaned) this movie by some close friends. I have to admit that I laughed more during this movie than during any of the rest so far. It is a funny and touching movie. It is the story of Burt and Verona a couple very much in love as they go through the life-changing experience of realizing they are about to have a baby. Verona's pregnancy naturally causes each of them to reconsider themselves and most importantly reconsider who they are as a family. When they come to the decision to remake themselves in a new location, they embark on a journey to find that destination. It takes them to different cities and different friends and relatives and in particular to different mentalities about parenting and the nature of family. The supporting cast provide a great amount of laughs in their roles as several different stereotypes. My favorite is LN (pronounced Ellen) played by Maggie Gyllenhaal whose method of parenting (aside from involving as much breastfeeding as possible, including for her six-year-old Wolfie and a colleague's baby she was asked to babysit for) is based on the concept of prohibiting the three "S"es: no separation, no sugar and no strollers. Burt, played by John Krasinski of The Office fame, also provides a good number of laughs with his goofiness. He is nicely balanced by Maya Rudolph who plays Verona, a surprisingly real-seeming person with her natural fears and emotions as a woman in her mid-thirties coming to terms with herself while still overcoming the early loss of both her parents.

I really enjoyed this movie at times. It is cheesy as hell at times as well, filled with the long "so-in-love-but-what-are-we-gonna-do" stares between Burt and Verona or their stares into the distant fields as they ask themselves those same questions and it's beautiful countryside, on-the-road scenery, sunrise shots with it's Jack Johnsonesque soft-voiced guitar ballads soundtrack that are just enough to get right up to the tipping point of making you want to puke, but what can you expect? This is definitely in the genre of a "date movie", and you've got to put up with some of that at times. Luckily this movie also makes up for it with some good laughs.

No comments:

Post a Comment