WE BEGIN IN that bit of contemporary America where most everything is the colour paint manufacturers (don’t really) refer to as Independent-Cinema Brown.
It is winter, but Burt and Verona, the film’s agreeable heroes, do not own the sort of hugely puffed jackets that Jennifer Aniston would wear when doing her thing in a snowbound romcom. No. They pull on many shaggy, faded layers, before climbing into a rattling, ancient car and venturing towards parents who, if this weren’t a Sam Mendes film, would be played by the poor man’s Jeff Daniels and the poorer woman’s Catherine O’Hara. (As it happens, it is a Sam Mendes film, so the real Daniels and O’Hara are on hand.)
Burt’s folks are moving to Antwerp, and they refuse to allow news of Verona’s pregnancy to affect their kooky plans. Sideswiped by the Flemish gambit, our couple, who don’t feel at all ready for parenthood, make plans for an ambitious road trip. They will visit pals in various, farflung locales – Miami, Montreal, Phoenix – to assess the best city for child rearing and the most effective parenting strategies.
Consider for a moment that the film is written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, doyens of the trendy McSweeney's publishing house, and note that those visited include Maggie Gyllenhaal and Allison Janney. Away We Gocould only sound more proudly indie if it featured a soundtrack collaboration by Yo La Tengo and a vegetarian jug band. (In fact, it includes weedy songs by one Alexi Murdoch.)
Burt and Veronica’s first journey takes them to Phoenix, where they meet up with an archetypically unsympathetic suburban monster played by Ms Janney. All the condescending prejudices about the straight life are on display. Their old friend drinks too much and treats her children with something a little like contempt. Grr! Nasty, suburban squares. They need to take out a McSweeney’s subscription and buy a few Animal Collective albums. We’ll show them with our sensitive, inclusive comedy.
Away We Gojust cries out to be loathed, but, against all the odds, it turns out to be a surprisingly adorable piece of work. The key to its success is that, for all its determined quirkiness and all the cleverness of its creators, it never feels anything less than sincere.
Much of the credit must go to the two lead actors. John Krasinski, a rapidly rising character actor, and Maya Rudolph, alumna of Saturday Night Live(and daughter of singer Minnie Ripperton), shun post-Juno snark to create fleshy human beings with edges, ridges and crevices to their personalities.
After last week's heart-warming double act by Stanley Tucci and Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia, we are again allowed a rare glimpse inside a functional, durable marriage. These people acknowledge the differences that cause them to bicker but know how to stop the rancour from becoming malignant.
Sam Mendes has agreed that Away We Gocould be viewed as a complementary piece to his Revolutionary Road. Sure enough, whereas the Richard Yates adaptation had to do with fatally crossed lines, this film deals with the art of unspoken communication.
Eggers and Vida also deserve credit for allowing themselves a few digs at members of their natural consistency. The film's most acerbic section focuses on the heroes' visit to an infuriating New Age university lecturer, played, with no concessions to balance, by the reliable Maggie Gyllenhaal. Coming across like Cressida Wright-Pratt in Viz's The Modern Parents, Gyllenhaal demonstrates the psychotic, unthinking selfishness of so many people who think themselves thoughtfully selfless.
Yet, Away We Gois, at its heart, a nice film about nice people. Perhaps it drifts into gooeyness at times. Maybe it too often keeps its blade sheathed. Its final shot is certainly more optimistic than that in Revolutionary Road. Still, we need such uplift from time to time.
