When Verona (Maya Rudolph) and Burt (John Krasinski) find out that their conjugal relationship has brought about a pregnancy, they are both joyous and fret with fear about the future. Verona's parents passed away years ago, whilst Burt's have decided to move to Europe for two years, irrespective of them becoming grandparents. This causes the pair of soon-to-be father and mother to seek a new home, somewhere where they would have soul-parents to share their fate. This causes them to travel across the US and Canada, observe various family models and strive to find a place where they would fit best.Sam Mendes, after a tiresome and unconvincing "Revolutionary Road", changes tone and exits out of his comfort zone to deliver a muted comedy with some true appeal, if limited integrity. The opening quarter of an hour actually had me wondering if the concept on offer by Mendes would work, as the humour is most often unobtrusive, instead lingering, slowly building to form a atmosphere of laughter, instead of gag with a punch line. The endearing leads slowly grasp the situation, never allowing themselves to fall into ridicule, but keeping an honest, charming and contemplative feel to their angst of parenthood. This is basically a couple you would love to know, love to have your kids grow up with and despite their oddities one of the most heartfelt pairings in American cinema.That doesn't mean Mendes doesn't have its flaws, as occasionally the concept turns to gimmick for a bit of cheap laughter, especially problematic when he turns his attention to jab at the liberal upbringing methods of LN (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Hamilton (Josh Hamilton), lacking any sensitivity to couples choosing different family models. This is especially striking given Verona and Burt are hardly your conventional family, still somehow come off are offensively judgemental to models that don't fit their set views - inadvertently making them problematically close-minded, something that obviously wasn't the intention of the director. This lack of integrity does seriously harm the overall message of the movie, leaving "Away We Go" to be enjoyable family comedy with some insightful outlook into the changes brought about by parenthood, but lacking the clarity and conviction to cope with the bigger picture.

I am a fan of good comedies and independent smaller movies that are not about action and flashy special effects (which I also enjoy) but about looking closely at the characters, exploring the lives and desires of the ordinary people, and finding kindness, love, and gentle humor in every day situations. I like to follow the sympathetic characters on the journey of self-discovery and in search for the perfect place for them to live - just like the couple in Sam Mendes' comedy "Away We Go" 2009). Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) are 30-something educated, independent, intelligent, and what is quite unusual in the modern movies, truly loving each other unmarried couple who have been together for years and expecting their first child. The movie takes them on the road trip all around America. They leave Denver after having found out that Burt's cheerful and self-absorbed parents (Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels) who live close by will be moving out of country to spend two years in Antwerp, Belgium and wont'be present at their grandchild's birth. Burt and Verona will be visiting friends and relatives in Phoenix, Tucson, Madison, Montreal, and Miami trying to find the perfect place to raise their daughter and to be with the soul-mates. Sounds like a perfect independent comedy and fun, and I was ready to love it. After I finished watching, I see that it was supposed to be funny and touching, personal and realistic, subtle and offbeat, and it sure was at times but it did not completely succeed for me. I think it tried too hard. I found some of the characters not realistic and funny but obnoxious over the top cardboard figures, and some jokes felt awkward. The film looks nice - Sam Mendes has a good eye for American beauty and he brings it it in every film he has made, and Away We Go is not en exception. Two main characters, expecting parents Burt and Verona as played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph are believable and likable even if not always interesting. There is a story behind Verona's constant refusal to get married even though Burt keeps insisting and she is in love with him and sees him as her soul-mate. I assume it has to do with the death of her parents and the memories of the true happiness and closeness she and her younger sister had with them. Even if there is more than decade since they are gone, she still copes with their absence from her life. I read that Dave Eggers, the writer of the script, was 21 and living in Lake Forest, Illinois when he lost both his parents to cancer five weeks apart, leaving Eggers to raise his 8-year-old brother, Christopher. I think that he wrote the script that caught Mendes's attention coming to terms with his own past and his loss. The best, the most moving scenes of the film are these where Verona opens up and recalls the scene of pure happiness from her childhood. Another memorable scene for me was the ending of the film. Some can see it as melodramatic but I think it was an appropriate and fitting end to the journey in search for Home. Away we Go is not a bad movie but as the rather short road movie, it is abrupt and inconsistent - some characters that we meet and their stories are quite interesting but we don't have time enough to learn about them because away we go to the next destination of Burt's and Verona's journey.

I really hoped for something different with this one especially since I loved Mendes's 'American Beauty', but I wasn't prepared for this.. I cannot remember the last time I saw such an unimaginative, empty, uninspired movie, really tragic. I guess some people would find this type of dialogue (I couldn't call this a comedy if my life depended on it) interesting but I'd get more laughs from watching the washing machine go through the cycle. If you find lines like: "I'll love you even if I can't find your vagina" hilarious - then this might be for you. Horrible dialogues, awful acting, and the only positive thing was the music. Rated 7.1 on IMDb - wow - amazing!

A young couple are a few months away from having their first child when Burt discovers that his parents are planning to move to Belgium a few weeks before the baby is due. Suddenly faced with the reality of having no family in the area and no reason to be there, he and his partner Verona head out on the road to visit various family and friends around the US and Canada to try and decide where best to settle to have their baby.With films like Revolutionary Road and Jarhead under his belt it was a real surprise to see English director Mendes suddenly making what appeared to be an indie-spirited comedy with two TV comedians in the lead roles. I was curious but bad reviews always seemed to keep it down my watch list until recently. The film generally does have a nice indie feel to it and the story is basically one of two characters discovering what is best of them in terms of their relationship and location (but mainly the former). They do this by encountering and rejecting the various lifestyles and parenting decisions of others who they visit. Whether it is their rather skittish parents, the blunt crudity of Phoenix, the annoyance of new spirituality, the sadness of others they go through the journey trying to find a "way" and a place that works for them. It is a nice film in this way and I did find it funny because the characters are mostly amusingly drawn, but it didn't work as well as I had hoped.Part of this is down to the main two characters. I like the two actors that played them but as "people" within the film they were not particularly good. They both came over as smug and superior to the others that they rejected and both the film and they themselves seemed unwilling to consider that actually everyone is annoying – but Bert yelling swearwords on a crowded train is presented as kooky and fun, whereas Lily doing it at a dog-track is crude and unbearable. This put me off them a little bit and it didn't help that neither of the two can do so much as lie in a bed without the film plastering a "Indie soundtrack 101" song all over the top of them. The use of music is poor – it is obvious and overused.As director Mendes does do a better job than I expected though – he handled the comedy well and he does get decent performances even if the material does guide him a way he either can't or doesn't want to, address. Likewise this applies to both Rudolph and Krasinski, I liked them both and they work well together but it is the material that makes them a little annoying rather than their performances. Daniels and O'Hara are good, Janney is wonderfully white-trash but it is really Gyllenhaal that stood out for me with her absurd and funny character. Also of note is Ejogo, who remains not only a stunning actress but also is well cast and convinces as Rudolph's sister.Away We Go is not a brilliant film but it is an OK one. It wears its indie spirit a bit too obviously and doesn't produce a consistent feel, but it has enough laughs and enough nice moments to get by. Those that generally dislike this sort of thing will be turned off by the approach though and even I found the constant and predictable soundtrack to be too much!