Away We Go is a good film because it shows protagonists living life. Why does this make a good movie? You ask. It seems simple enough, but I’m not sure many, if any of you, know how to do this and movies these days get by with gimmicky storylines, explosions, and Judd Apatow (no disrespect). But to have a movie that just shows life in innocent purity is truly a rarity and a jewel.
In Sam Mendes' (American Beauty, Jarhead) charming film, Verona (Maya Rudolph, daughter to Minnie Riperton) and Burt (John Krasinski, The Office) find themselves pregnant and stranded by the latter’s parents and bestowed with the gift of latitude. The movie then finds itself a sequence of settings in which the endearing couple learn bits of life in each diorama with its own inhabitants, like some awesomely twisted nature show, but rather than Steve Irwin (Coco bless his soul), Verona and Bert are left to poke and cajole the creatures of parenthood and independence.
Our story’s heros seem fragile and strong, and the film is not shy about implying their moral superiority to every crazy they encounter. And they encounter a plethora of crazy. Usually, I detest a stellar dramatis personae but in this case, the entire bill (including random extras) create a seemingly endless ripple of laughter halted by sudden, blunt eddies of deep emotion. Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, Catherine O’Hara, Jeff Daniels, Melanie Lynskey, and Paul Schneider (to name a few!) embody their respective stereotypes, but add an undertone of unique wholesomeness, in sense of originality (certainly not appropriateness).
Rudolph and Krasinski also remain 100% believable 96% of the time, but in those lingering 4% we can see and hear only Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida writing cliché into this otherwise beautifully surprising script. These moments are unnatural and forced, but necessary and overall contribute more to the film than they sacrifice, but these scenes of jejune sentimentality and sporadic artsy-for-the-sake-of-artsy shots stir a reaction this side of parental disappointment towards a sloppy child.
But overall I find the film absolutely satisfying, a laugh riot (Africa, O Africa) and I was sad when it was over. There were no gimmicks or antics, no unrealistic plot twists, because there is little plot. And I don’t consider myself betraying you by revealing this, because Away We Go is not about what happens, but how Burt and Verona live their lives. The pregnancy is a red herring for a simple look into the complicated lives of two people and the world around them. Go see it.
Also, apart from being spawn of siren Minnie, Maya Rudolph produced offspring with P.T. Anderson, director of the lionized There Will Be Blood and (perhaps adequately celebrated) Boogie Nights. The latter starred Mark Wahlberg, impersonated by Andy Samberg on SNL, of which Maya also stars.
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