By Faris Tanyos for KDRV
 
June 28, 2009
 
Grade: A
 
My best friend Rob (‘Rubaduba', as he's known to me) and I used to have a sporadic summer ritual.
 
We'd get a pack of Swisher Sweets and head out on an epic stroll. Sometimes the stroll lasted an hour, sometimes three or four. We'd talk about everything. As we became better friends, our conversations became more honest. I guess it's what Will in "Goodwill Hunting" calls, "a Taster's Choice moment between guys". Sometimes they took place on a porch, with Rubaduba smoking a pipe. It sounds mundane, and at the time, it was just something to do. In hindsight though, those were some of the best moments of my life. I miss them. They say the friends you make in college are... you know the rest. They ain't lying.
 
"Away We Go" is comfortable in the best way. It is reassuring in the best way. I cried when I walked out of the cinema, because it took me back to those conversations with Rubaduba; it planted that nostalgia in me. I was comfortable again, sitting on that back porch, in the doldrums of a summer night, drinking a rum & coke, listening to Rubaduba ramble on and on about chickens and economies of scale and whatever the hell else came to his mind...
 
"Away We Go" isn't posing, putting on an airs or pretensions. It isn't working its heart out to keep you entertained or win your approval like some court jester.
 
Burt and Verona feel authentic, people you might encounter in everyday life; neighbors or friends. They're not a checklist of contrived ‘couple' movie problems and issues. When they talk, they talk like you and me. When they argue, they argue like you and me... it's refreshing. They have no manufactured hurdles to overcome, no money problems, no issues of infidelity or unhappiness. They're content and fulfilled. As Critic Roger Ebert points out, some may view this as snobbery on the part of the filmmakers, a weakness. It isn't. Instead, Director Sam Mendes creates a mood, which carries the film, and has nothing to do with narrative. It gives us room to breathe, to contemplate.
 
Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph of SNL fame) are approaching their mid 30s when Verona gets pregnant. They live in Denver, in a disheveled rundown house. Rundown, not because they're poor, but because they've chosen to maintain a college lifestyle. Are they ready for the responsibilities of a child? With Verona's parents dead, they're counting on Burt's parents Jerry (Jeff Daniels) and Gloria (Catherine O'Hara), who live nearby, for support when the baby comes. However, Jerry and Gloria, very kooky characters, decide, on a whim, to do a two-year stint in Antwerp, Belgium, leaving the uncertain couple in a lurch.
 
So, Burt and Verona decide to move too. With Verona six months pregnant, they head out on a nationwide road trip to find a suitable new home. Their first stop is Phoenix, and Verona's old boss Lily (Allison Janney). Lily has zero-filter and absolutely no idea how to relate to, or about, her two children. She openly discusses issues of an adult nature in front of her son, and wonders out loud to B&V if her daughter is a lesbian-in-waiting. It should be noted that the screenplay by husband and wife team, and literary giants, Vendela Vida and Dave Eggers (his memoir "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" was runner-up for the Pulitzer in 2000) is fantastic, and in the hands of a less capable director, these situations could have been mangled beyond recognition. But Mendes knows what he's doing, and he maintains a steady pitch.
 
They escape to Tucson, where Verona's sister Grace (Carmen Ejogo) works at a hotel. Grace is single, dealing with the usual pitfalls of the single life, but she's not so wrapped up in herself as not to notice that Verona's got a good thing going with Burt.
 
From Tucson they go to Madison, Wisconsin, where Burt's childhood friend Ellen (Maggie Gyllenhaall), who's changed her name to LN, a college professor and extreme feminist, resides with her husband Roderick (Josh Hamilton) and their two young kids in a blanket of illusion. Roderick doesn't believe in working-for-a-living, LN refuses Burt's gift of a stroller because she believes it sends the wrong message to be "pushing your child away".
 
They flee to Montreal, where their college friends Tom (Chris Messina) and Munch (Melanie Lynskey) live in a beautiful home in a beautiful city with a plethora of adopted children. "Let's move to Montreal," Verona says. She wants to adopt a plethora of children too. But Tom & Munch's adopted children, they learn, have come at a very steep price.
 
In Miami, Burt's brother Courtney (Paul Schneider) is distraught after his wife suddenly leaves him and his daughter. How could a mother just up and leave her child like that Burt asks? Verona promises Burt she will never leave him or their baby... but she won't marry him either, for reasons I won't get into here.
 
This film isn't perfect; it's not a masterpiece. It's too whimsical in spots; its periphery characters can get a bit too zany, too carried way, play too much into ‘Indy movie' stereotypes. The road trip idea is a little played. You know what? I don't care. I loved it.
 
Burt and Verona finally do find a home. Not the one they expected, but that's to be expected. I've always believed your home is where you feel most comfortable. So maybe it's not a place, but the people that make it; memories that make it.
 
"Wish I were with you, I couldn't stay
Every direction leads me away
Pray for tomorrow, but for today
All I want is to be home.
 
Echoes and silence, patience and grace
All of these moments I'll never replace
No fear of my heart, absence of faith
All I want, is to be home.
 
People I've loved, I have no regrets
Some I remember, some I forget
Some of them living, some of them dead
All I want, is to be home."
 
- Foo Fighters, from "Home"
 
ftanyos@kdrv.com