Reviewed by Daniel Rutledge
Part Knocked Up and part Juno, Away We Go is an indie romantic comedy about a young couple becoming pregnant.
Burt and Verona are an educated, self-employed, thirty-something couple who both come across as very real, believable characters. When they discover they are expecting their first child, they decide to travel around North America visiting friends and relatives in order to find a place that feels like home, where they’ll be comfortable raising their family.
This journey is a great way to introduce a diverse range of kooky characters who will make you laugh and want to cry. Each have different parenting methods Burt and Verona – and the audience – keenly observe. There’s a standout performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal as a weirdo hippy, but also impressive are Allison Janney as a brashly open mum who seems hell-bent on embarrassing her kids, and a couple played by Chris Messina and Kiwi Melanie Lynskey, whose outward happiness hides tragedy.
John Krasinski is exceptional as the lead actor and shows off depth the US version of The Office would never allow. I expect to see a lot more of him in movies, and I look forward to doing so.
A lot of the humour is raunchy, it’s always quirky and has that fun indie feel throughout, although sometimes it pushes things a little too far into silly, unrealistic territory.
The predictably over-sentimental ending is not as bad as I expected it would be, but it would still have been much better if the filmmakers had done something a little more fresh.
Still, this is a lovely, funny little film.
Three and a half stars.
Away We Go
:: Director: Sam Mendes
:: Starring: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Melanie Lynskey
:: Running Time: 98 mins
:: Rating: M - Contains Sex Scenes and Offensive Language
:: Release Date: November 12, 2009
:: Trailer: Click here
