I am writing this review from a hotel in Tucson, AZ which was featured in the movie I am reviewing ... a first for me!
Last night after much anticipation I finally got around to seeing the new Sam Mendes movie Away We Go starring John Krasinski (Jim Halpert from The Office) and SNL favorite Maya Rudolph. The trailer suggested this was right up my alley with the story centering on a couples nomadic trek across America (and Montreal!) to try and find a place to settle down and raise the baby that is due in a few months. Krasinski and Rudolph looked to have great chemistry in the trailer and it certainly played out in the film with the two of them sharing the screen with such ease it was hard to forget they are not actually an item in real life (although according to Mendes they were great friends off camera throughout the shoot).
The movie sets the tone from the get go with a very funny bedroom scene in which Burt (Krasinski) is enjoying an intimate moment with Verona (Rudolph) when he realizes through somewhat unique means that she might actually be pregnant. It was a real 'laugh out loud' way to start the flick and just the first of many scenes where I was giggling like an idiot or belly laughing along with the rest of the theater. Fast forward 6 months and Burt and Verona head off to tell Burt's parents played with aplomb by the always on form Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels, the good news. To avoid too many spoilers they end up hitting the road looking for a place to settle down and the first place is my hometown of Phoenix where they hook up with Verona's ex colleague Lily played by the West Wing's Allison Janney whose attitude to parenting was another comedy highlight. Tucson is the next stop on the tour where Verona's sister is working at the hotel I am sitting in right now! It was an odd experience to turn to my fellow moviegoers and whisper ... 'we'll be there tomorrow'!
John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph & Sam Mendes at the Marriott Starr Pass Resort in Tucson, AZ
Well the tour of the country continues up to Madison, WI where they meet up with a friend of Burts family and all round nut 'LN' played by Maggie Gyllenhaal in one of this years tour de force comedy performances. The scenes, and I wont go into too much detail as you just have to see them for yourself, are to coin an oft misused phrase ... uproarious! The theater was drowned in laughter in a way I haven't seen for a very long time during a movie. There are many many great scenes in Away We Go but frankly they could release just the ones involving Gyllenhaal (about 15mins) and it would still be a hit!
The tour continues up to Montreal and down to Miami with Burt and Verona learning about themselves and their friends and family as they travel experiencing various misadventures. While you might think that this is a 100% all out 'laugh fest' it is also a very touching movie that offers the characters as mirrors to our lives and asks questions sometimes as difficult/rewarding as those that were asked of movie going couples in last years wonderful Revolutionary Road.
Sam Mendes is clearly enjoying a rich vein of form as a director, here supported by two talented lead actors and a script that is absolutely on point all the way through the film. It's another movie from Focus Features who don't seem to be able to put a foot wrong at the moment (Milk, Sin Nombre, 9, Taking Woodstock ... amazing!).
Away We Go is currently on limited release but surely the success and buzz it has enjoyed since opening will push it out to the multiplexes as happened with Milk. You may have to look around and travel a mile of two extra to see this film but I promise you that it will be the best 98 minutes you will have spent at the movies in quite a while.
Rating: *****
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