Away We Go was simply endearing and real. John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph are soul mates and you know this within the first 30 minutes of the movie. Wonderful, wonderful cast, Catherine O’Hare and Jeff Daniels portray Krasinski’s kinda loopy parents who decide to move to Europe the month before Rudolph’s character gives birth, which totally surprises the couple. Why wouldn’t the grandparents want to stick around?
So this leads them to search of a place where they can settle down and raise their child. They decide to visit some friends and family and all these various connections show them what they want and don’t want in their lives. Continuing with a great cast, Allison Janney and Jim Gaffifgan also share an afternoon with Krasinski and Rudolph’s character, as the women used to work together years ago. They also visit Carmen Ejogo, who plays Rudolph’s younger sister and the chemistry onscreen of them playing sisters who’ve lost their parents young and Rudolph’s character having more memories and images over her sister is very touching and completely real. The next set of characters are college buddies, played by Melanie Lynskey and Chris Messina, who are married and have adopted several children and there is a heart wrenching scene between Messina and Krasinski and Lynskey made me feel her emotions. Probably the best scene and acting for me!
They also visit some family friends played by the great Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton. This couple is a tad bit odd and completely unlike all the other people they interact with and it is hilarious how Krasinski’s character is pretty laid back throughout the whole film until he has had enough – hilarious! Then Krasinski’s older bother has an emergency and they have to make a stop in Florida and in the middle of the night Rudolph and Krasinski have a very honest conversation and it is simply wonderful to see people being completely open and honest with their hopes, doubts of themselves, their wants and fears of being a disappointment in life – No bullshit! But this road trip of finding the perfect place to raise their child and have their family roots was right there the entire time but it took this trip to make them realize it. A very touching film and so different and such a refreshing look at life told from a different angle.
The wonderful and talented Sam Mendes directed this movie which was completely different than what I have seen in a long time and it was such a true honest film. The characters were great and you could feel the joy, sadness and the crazy. This movie is a great film; you will laugh, cry, laugh again and then cry of joy and sadness. All things that we feel everyday.
Definitely worth watching!
http://www.filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/away_we_go/
