Directed by Sam Mendes
(R)
***
A couple expecting their first child hit the road to discover the definition of home.
Away We Go is a “disarming road comedy about parents looking for a place to call home,” said Scott Tobias in The Onion. The Office’s John Krasinski and Saturday Night Live’s Maya Rudolph play a 30-something couple expecting their first child. Still struggling to figure out who they are, the two embark on a journey across America to find a new place to live, and to prove to their child and to themselves that they’re not a couple of screw-ups. The “bright, keenly observed” script by husband-and-wife novelists Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida plays like a funnier version of What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Director Sam Mendes took the American dream a little too seriously in last year’s Revolutionary Road, said Stephanie Zacharek in Salon.com. Here, he “shows some humility.” The couple’s “so-called trauma” at facing adulthood may deserve the “world’s tiniest violin,” but the film as a whole “feels genuinely grown-up.” Through all the film’s twists, Mendes “strikes an artful balance between satirical comedy and heart-wrenching drama,” said Claudia Puig in USA Today. Away We Go ends in an “emotionally satisfying place.”
