I feel really bad for Kate Winslet. She’s married to Sam Mendes who apparently, hates marriage and the idea of married life. Looking at two of his better known movies, American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, you don’t get the idea that he has a very good outlook on the “holy union” of two people who love one another. Seriously. I mean, adultery, extreme unhappiness, self-induced abortion. Jesus… Luckily with his latest movie Away We Go, Mendes provides hope, possibility, conviction and love rather than depression.
Burt Farlander (John Krasinski) and Verona De Tessant (Maya Rudolph) are in love. They are also in their early/mid thirties, expecting a child, and are completely lost. Each having jobs they can do from the road, Burt and Verona set out to find out where they want to live and raise their soon-to-be child by traveling around North America. While momentarily meeting with friends from their past and other family members, they are each provided with a humorous, shocking, and sometimes heartbreaking view on what other couple’s lives are like in contrast to theirs.
LOVED IT. Seriously, I couldn’t have picked a better movie to see in theaters after seeing that abortion, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. A day before seeing Away We Go, I watched the Irish film, Eden on my computer. If you haven’t seen it, it doesn’t paint a very good picture of marriage as it contains uninvolved parents, infidelity, and a man who is no longer sexually aroused by his wife. Suffice it to say, marriage has gotten a bad rap lately. Luckily, Away We Go was able to re-signify the possibility of love as well as the importance of it.
I love The Office. Who doesn’t, right? And one of the best parts about The Office is definitely Jim. John Krasinski’s quirky faces and natural approach has made him a vital part of the show. Not to mention his romance with Pam (Jenna Fischer). Anyway, I feared those facial gestures and watching him as Jim Halpert for 5 seasons may hurt his portrayal as Burt, but they didn’t. Burt Farlander is an insurance salesman by phone. This allows him to grow a beard and take no interest in his clothes matching. Along with desperately wanting to make Verona his wife, Burt wants to be a good dad to his unborn daughter. He has high hopes of being the father who has all the answers and knows how to fix things, however at the beginning of the movie, he doesn’t have the confidence in himself to feel he can achieve this.
Every time I see Maya Rudolph, all I can think of is her as Donatella Versace from SNL. Luckily, I was able to get past that while watching Away We Go. Verona is a medical illustrator. However, after becoming pregnant, her illustrations all begin to look like a cervix. Based on her mother and father dying when she was in college, Verona has different views on family and marriage should be. This is the reason she will not marry Burt; not due to her not loving him. She even asks Burt if he thinks anyone is in love like they are. In the end, Verona is just as scared and unsure as Burt is. But as long as they have each other to lean on, they know they’ll be safe.
Away We Go was refreshing in a summer riddled with draining films. I read one review that called it “Juno’s older and more mature cousin”. I can kind of see that, but I think Away We Go stands on it’s own. The laughs (which there we’re a lot of) are generated not by quick-witted lines executed by a teenager wise beyond her years, but by Burt and Verona’s relatable and endearing personalities. I’ll definitely be recommending this one to family and friends.
9.0 out of 10.
Tags: Adult, Adulthood, Away We Go, Away We Go Review, Carmen Ejogo, Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels, John Krasinski, Juno, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Maya Rudolph, Movie, Movie Review, Parenting, Parents, Pregnancy, Pregnant, Review, Sam Mendes, The Office
