Ok, so I actually started this post a month ago - shortly after this film came out. I've probably lost all my readers by now, but today's post marks a big change for the Mojo. I'm now working from home and plan on making my posts at least bi-weekly - as per the original plan. The Mojo still seems torn between being a cooking blog, a film review blog or a current events blog; most likely, it will be a collage of all three, plus random topics (like curtain-making) I hope readers will find interesting. So thanks to those of you who hung in there...now, Away We Go!
I've been excited about this movie since I saw a poster on YouTube mentioning it was co-written by Dave Eggers and his wife, Vendela Vida. If you've never heard of Dave Eggers, well...as a synopsis, he wrote a cultishly famous-among-struggling-artists book called "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius". (Look - it has its own Wikipedia entry!) AHWSG is, as suggested by its title, a self-indulgent yet poignant memoir of a twentysomething kid struggling through family tragedy and...being twentysomething. I was taking some postmodern and poetry classes when I first read it, so I was absolutely enthralled. Still am.
Dave Eggers also (true to the character that resembles him in AHWSG) founded and edits a literary magazine called McSweeny's, which has given wings to some amazing writers across TV and print media - particularly in comedy.
So, when I saw a film with John Krasinsky - the Office's bestboyfriendever Jim Halpert - and Maya Rudolph from SNL, I almost peed myself (don't worry - I didn't).
Poignant, awkward and hilarious, Away We Go not only had a cast of legendary comedians, but a relatable - if somewhat self important - story. The story had many similarities an up and coming peer of Eggers, Zach Braff's finding-myself films Garden State and Last Kiss. Braff's films represent twenty and early thirtysomething characters (both played by Braff) finding senses of identity in a society of disassociation and...angst. Eggers and Vida's story echoed similar themes.
Burt Farlander (Krasinski) and Verona De Tessant (Rudolph) are a couple in their early thirties with an unexpected baby on the way.
The well meant self importance of Away We Go's story may mirror Garden State, but the characters do not. Bert and Verona are lovable, hilarious and extremely relatable.
After Bert and Verona introduce themselves in the most awkward honey-i-think-you're-pregnant scene in film history (hint: it ends in John Krasinski tumbling off the bed) and discovering in a hilarious scene with Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara that Bert's parents are moving out of the country, the two go on a series of "finding ourselves" adventures as they roadtrip across the States.
Eggers and Vida move the story through a series of landscapes which imitate Bert and Verona's self-discovery, as well as the characters who set the stage for each place. In desolate Pheonix, we meet Lilly (Allison Janey) and her husband Lowell (Jim Gaffigan) who demonstrate just how self-centered and disconnected parents can be from their children - as well as the rest of the world. After a series of painfully hilarious antics, Janey caps off her performance by kissing Bert on the mouth as they are preparing to leave.
Without giving away too much, highlights from their other adventures include Maggie Gyllenhaal's most outrageous comedy scene to date as a rich, self-righteous hippie (who breastfeeds her 5 year old son). For all the film's crazy antics, the script still manages to plunge the audience into several tear-jerking moments. Bert and Verona's Canadian friends Tom and Much Garret (Chris Messina, "Julie & Julia" and Melanie Lynskey, "Ever After") show the unexpectedly pregnant couple what it feels like for couples who desperately want to conceive, but can't. It's not every writer who can make you cry during a pole dancing scene.
One of the most interesting points to me was how characters throughout the entire film harassed Bert and Verona for not being married. Surprisingly, it's Verona who refuses to adhere to the social norm, and although the validity of Verona's reasoning is left up to the viewer, in the end it only seems to matter as much as the characters let it.
Due to the incredible lateness of this post, you can now see Away We Go in the cheap theaters! Or you could wait until it comes out on DVD and put it in your Netflicks queue. Either way, I highly recommend it for chick-flick-lovers and high-nosed film critics alike.
P.S. Yes, the soundtrack is by Alexi Murdoch. Soooooo good.
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1 comments:
it was interesting to me that the film got generally poor reviews and was, to my eye, a fairly spot-on signpost for our generation. those two factors co-existing seemed somehow significant to me.
and the soundtrack was amazing.
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