Away We Go

[jaydee36]

I thought this was ok, quite slow in places. Found the stroller incident very funny but not much else. Just felt there was something missing.

6/10

[kittycoocat]

I loved this film last week. Saw it at Cineworld Cardiff.

Was quite a full screening ..................

unexpected 7.5/10

[Calicocat]

Saw this last night at Cineworld, Glasgow. The cinema was probably about 75% full.

My mum thought the film was very boring ....... she says that nothing happened. Same as mum hated Lost in Translation and The Shop Girl, and I loved them. She doesn't seem to like 'studies' - she wants to be entertained and excited etc etc (though not as much excitement as Donkeypunch !!!!)

On the other hand, I enjoyed it. Just two people making their way through life and interacting with other people.

7/10

p.s. on a gross note. I had to complain on the way out about the flies in the ladies loos - yuk!! There are no windows so goodness knows where they were coming from

CalicoCat

[Beate]

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/rev ... FID=136204

Plot
Burt (Krasinski) and Verona (Rudolph) are expecting their first baby. When Burt’s parents, the couple’s sole reason for moving to their current non-descript town, decide to leave the US, the couple go on a trip cross-country to find somewhere to raise their child.

Review
Away We Go begins inauspiciously. The words “Directed by Sam Mendes” appear to be, frankly, a barefaced lie. Mendes makes pictures of modest, crisp beauty, while this looks like someone wouldn’t spring for a bulb of sufficiently high wattage and a harried costume designer did a last-minute dash around the sale rails. Something is up. But this is Mendes with his shoes off. It requires a different mindset, but it envelopes you like a hug.

Almost bravely, Mendes’ indie-style makeover posits a relationship all too rarely seen in cinema, TV or literature: one where the couple are completely and happily in love, without underlying secrets waiting to ruin everything. Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) have been together a long time, have no plans to marry (she won’t, for understandable reasons — it’s not an issue), are about to have a baby and want to raise it somewhere other than the dreary town they currently call The Place We Live At The Moment. So they traipse cross-country to visit pretty much any friend who has ever reproduced, their story wandering happily between comedy road trip and thirtysomething coming-of-middle-age drama.

Happiness is a difficult narrative concept to maintain, being, by definition, free of dramatic incident, but the lead couple are so charismatically written and played that even an uneventful trip on a train becomes high comedy. Those they meet along the way — including Allison Janney as a woman whose key parenting trick is severe mocking, and Maggie Gyllenhaal as the worst kind of evangelical Earth mother — are frequently broad and caricatured, but they’re balanced by the utterly believable leads, who seem themselves unable to believe these people are quite real. Krasinski is effortlessly likable as Burt, but Rudolph is a knockout. An SNL alum almost unheard of in this country, she gives a faultless performance, low on words and high on meaning.

This is not an ‘important’ film likely to receive the Oscar hype Mendes usually attracts (that seems to be much the point), but it’s a charming look at one of today’s best directors cheerfully cutting loose.

Verdict
While cynics may find it twee, Mendes fans should greatly enjoy this (gently) surprising change of direction. Go in with the right frame of mind and you’ll leave with a big, goofy grin on your face.

Four Stars
Reviewer: Olly Richards

[Ms Thrifty]

I've just "listened again" to Sam Mendes being interviewed about this film on R4's "Film Programme" - and learned from "The Guardian" that Maya Rudolph is Minnie Riperton's daughter!

[Beate]

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/films/away- ... ewsletters

The ViewLondon Review

Review by Matthew Turner
17/09/2009
Four out of Five stars
Running time: 94 mins

Enjoyable, impressively directed and superbly acted comedy-drama with a sharply written script that's both darkly funny and surprisingly moving.

What's it all about?
Directed by Sam Mendes, from a script by Vendela Vida and Dave Eggers, Away We Go stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph as thirty-something couple Burt and Verona, who find themselves unexpectedly pregnant with their first child. When Burt's parents (Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels), who live nearby, announce that they're moving to Belgium, Burt and Verona realise that there's no longer anything tying them to where they live, so they take a road trip in order to decide where they should raise their imminent child.

Their trip duly takes them to Phoenix, Tucson, Madison, Montreal and finally Miami, where Burt receives an urgent call from his brother (Paul Schneider). Along the way they visit Verona's sister (Carmen Ejogo) and several friends (including Maggie Gyllenhaal, Allison Janney and Melanie Lynskey), all of whom seem to have vastly different parenting styles.

The Good
Sam Mendes seems perfectly suited to the material (perhaps because of his own experience of raising kids in two continents) and he maintains a suitably ramshackle indie-road-movie vibe throughout, aided by an eclectic soundtrack and an effective use of chunkily-titled chapter headings (Away to Phoenix, Away to Tucson and so on).

John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph are both superb, creating a believable and engaging relationship that you instinctively root for. There's also a series of brilliantly cast cameos that range from the hilarious (Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan) to the unexpectedly moving (serial adopters Melanie Lynskey and Chris Messina) to the utterly excruciating (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

The Great
The script crackles with great lines and there are some lovely running gags (for example, Burt's fake arguments in reaction to Verona complaining that he never loses his temper), and Mendes demonstrates an unexpected gift for comedy, notably during a hilarious sequence involving a child's stroller.

Worth seeing?
Away We Go is an impressively directed, sharply written and superbly acted comedy-drama that's both emotionally engaging and laugh-out-loud funny. There’s a lovely final shot, too. Highly recommended.

[spuckle]

Was a bit disappointed in this myself, maybe it was just a bit too hyped up.

I just thought it was okay, both me & the missus gave it 6/10.