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I feel that the film makes a great connection between love and the experience of watching a movie. The end of this film is unbelievably right, given the nature of human experience and its relationship to the ideals that we construct in our heads. This movie captures the essence of both love and art together. We are bound to both love and art by a promise that we are pretty sure will be broken from time to time, just like the promises that the two people in the movie make to each other. But as human beings, we so much want the promise to come true that we will make it again and again. Whenever I watch a movie, I renew my own type of promise, one that I know will be broken, or at least will never live up to my own expectations. The characters in this movie go through the process of being broken by love (mostly through a sort of family and place Odyssey) in order to realize that the promises we make to each other can only be broken if we want them to be. We can love each other until we stop believing, and we can bring ourselves to watch a love story that keeps that same promise to the viewer. Sam Mendes has made the only romantic comedy he could ever make as a director: one that respects the viewer as well as the characters.

Away We Go (2009), directed by Sam Mendes, is a road movie with a difference. Many road movies involve strangers met by the protagonist as he or she travels from place to place. Away We Go sends the two main characters into different locations, but all the people they meet are people they already know, or think they know.

When Verona De Tessant (Maya Rudolph) learns that she is pregnant, the question for her and her partner, Burt (John Krasinkski) is, Where do we live after the baby is born? To answer the question, they travel from distant (U.S. and Canadian) city to distant city. Mostly what they find is disappointment and bad surprises.

Lily (Allison Janney), a former boss and friend, proves to be a dysfunctional person raising a dysfunctional family. A "cousin," LN (Maggie Gyllenhaal) gives new meaning to the words New Age. Verona's sister Grace (Carmen Ejogo) has her own problems and heartaches.

There are jokes (and laughs) along the way, but, the trip gets more and more discouraging (for them and us) as the movie goes along. What saves Verona and Burt (and the movie) is the loving, caring, and realistic relationship between the couple. They're both interesting, quirky, and attractive people. We care for them, and we want their quest to succeed.

Both Janney and Gyllenhaal are outstanding--as expected--although Mendes has portrayed both their characters in an exaggerated, over-the-top fashion. That's OK--we get the point, and the movie is a work of fiction, not a documentary.

Maya Rudolph makes a smooth transition from TV (SNL) to film. She's not drop-dead beautiful in the Hollywood style, which makes her more attractive (to me) and more appropriate to the character she plays.

Burt's character is more problematic. He's supposed to be someone who "sells insurance to insurance companies," but he looks and dresses more like an assistant manager at a fast- food restaurant. (He goes to a job interview dressed like someone who has picked out his clothing at a thrift shop.) And, given his moderate success in business, and Verona's equally moderate success as a medical illustrator, they're amazingly casual about spending money. Are they using their life's savings?

All in all, this is a movie worth seeing, but not likely to be on anyone's list of all-time favorite movies. We saw it at the excellent Little Theatre in Rochester, NY. It would also work well on DVD.

i just got back from a pre-screening of this in Dallas, and i must say i really enjoyed it. it seems like the whole audience enjoyed it as well, the theatre was often filled with laughter throughout this wonderful film.

i'm a fan of Sam Mendes' work, and his work excelled here in the realm of comedy. John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph shared great chemistry as a couple expecting their first child and trying to decide where to settle down and raise their family. it's a bit of a coming-of- age story about people who should have already come-of-age, as we travel across the country along with them meeting quirky parents, friends, and old schoolmates.

it's not all laughs, though. there are plenty of serious and introspective moments and my hat is off to Ms. Rudolph, generally known for her skills in comedy, for adding fine dramatic moments to her character. in the end, this movie doesn't offer any solutions to life's quirks, but it looks at them and even celebrates them.

it's not Mendes' best film, but it's a very enjoyable film with a great cast and lots of laughs, and should appeal to a pretty wide audience. it's a breath of fresh air from all of the Hollywood flash and crap that will be slopped across theater screens this summer. go see it!

I think I can honestly say that I like Sam Mendes. His films seem to gun above all else for a place of timeless emotional resonance (even when that timelessness eludes the films themselves) and usually succeed, even within the more confined quarters of their respective settings, whether the war-gutted landscape of Jarhead or the 30s era noir of Road To Perdition. Although the critically loved American Beauty loses alarming shades of impact for me with each viewing due to its flawed philosophical stabs toward truth, Mendes still manages to provoke a contemplative mindset out of his audience. His films operate well on that level, even when they fall short in their personal declarations.

Away We Go is Mendes' warmest film to date, taking on a tone of humor and lightness that none of his other works approached without a biting irony to match. Bert (The Office's John Krasinsky) and Verona (SNL's Maya Rudolph) are a young couple expecting their first child. They occupy a ramshackle trailer in Colorado near where Bert's parents (Jeff Daniels and Catherine O' Hara) live. Bert and Verona's reasons to remain in the area fall apart quickly when his parents decide to immediately move to France for a couple years, despite hearing the news of their coming grandchild. With that incentive now gone, the couple embarks on a road trip around the continental U.S. to reunite with old friends and look for a new place to call home. With each stop, through each encounter with estranged family and past friends, they find unsurety in their future as well as deepening layers in their relationship.

I've read a couple accounts that criticize the clashes between the poignancy and humor in Away We Go, and to a certain extent I would have to agree. There is definitely a clumsily staggered rhythm at certain points in the story, but overall I'd say that the heart of the insights and conflict overcomes the erraticism of the pace. There is some great chemistry between Krasinsky and Rudolph, and the talent (the aforementioned Daniels and O' Hara, Jim Gaffigan, Allison Janney, Paul Schneider, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, among the rest of the supporting ensemble) create convincing foils and compliments to Bert and Verona's journey. The direction is solid, and the screenplay (by first time screenwriters, novelist husband-and-wife team Vandela Vida and Dave Eggers) is sharp, hilarious and mostly consistent with its narrative. There's really nothing to keep me from recommending Away We Go. It's got an infectious vibe to it, and while it may be incongruent at times, and perhaps ride the Juno/Little Miss Sunshine/Junebug wave a little hard, it still remains enjoyable and heartfelt.

Director Sam Mendes last movie showed a couple deteriorating right in front of our eyes in "Revolutionary Road", and in a way he makes up for that depressing slog with "Away We Go". The couple here are upstarts, two people with a baby on the way who for the first time find themselves wondering about where they fit in the world and what they'll be like as parents. They're hopeful, but you can see the fear plastered on their face. First time screenwriters (and husband and wife) Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida waste no time in making them two identifiable people, and in the way they survey life's odd, complicated, and wonderful little moments, "Go" never fails at being a funny, thoughtful and heartwarming little gem that you'll fall in love with.

John Krasinski (The Office) and Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) play Burt and Verona, a mid-thirties boyfriend-girlfriend (Verona has a marriage issue) who get the shock of their lives when Verona gets pregnant. Not only that but any roots they have in their little Connecticut town are about to be uprooted because Burt's parents (a funny Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara) are moving to Belgium a month before the baby is born. Having no reason to stay where they are, they pack up and take a road trip, stopping anywhere they know they might find a familiar face. Phoenix, Tucson, Madison, Montreal, and Miami are all marked for a trial period as the two try to figure out who and what they would like to raise their family around.

It's an odd blend of dealing with life's what-ifs and meeting a variety of broad characters. Allison Janney is the funniest of the broad, playing Verona's former boss Lily, an abrasive alcoholic who enjoys point-blank degrading her children and her crazy, paranoid husband, nicely played by Jim Gaffigan. Maggie Gyllenhaal also shows up later on as Burt's zen-like cousin who takes family closeness to a whole new level, i.e creepy. Mendes balances scenes like these perfectly with the richly written script. A scene between Verona and her sister (Carmen Ejogo) where the ushering in of new life forces them to confront the death of their parents, and another where Burt's brother (Paul Schneider), whose wife has just abandoned him and their young daughter, encourages Burt to think about the strength of his own bond with Verona have a rare power that speaks to the importance of family. There is a point where the interspersing of comedy and drama starts to get old but luckily a third act of genuine lessons and happy mediums lead to some of the movies best scenes.

And these are star-making turns from Krasinski and Rudolph. He has a doofy charm that gets a couple good laughs but he also makes Burt a loveably doting and comforting boyfriend there for Verona no matter what. And Rudolph is a big surprise here as she turns in a performance of maturity, vulnerability, and depth. This type of performance is a long way from SNL. They are, for the most part, the straight-men to the quirky characters and are called upon to spend most of the movie's run-time just talking and they gel so well with each other that you really don't even mind. Ellen Kuras' cinematography (rolling hills, sunrises, planes moving across glass window panes) and Alexi Murdoch's songs only increase the pleasure in this funny and effective indie rom-com.

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