"All of a sudden, even though you have a place where you put your shit, that idea of home is gone." In Away We Go, Burt Farlander (John Krasinski) and Verona De Tessant (Maya Rudolph) search for that very mythical place - home - that Zach Braff claimed in Garden State disappears from the life of a 30-something as he begins to settle down. Along the way, director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) sends Burt and Verona down a beautiful, crash-course path of discovery in an inspiring and poignant story.
With the three months left in Verona's pregnancy slowly whittling down and a set of grandparents moving across the globe mere weeks before the due date, Burt and Verona find themselves in quite a pickle: they must find a suitable place to raise their child. To squelch fears of uncertainty, they leave Denver behind to make the all-important quest. Each family - some wacky, some wonderful - they visit during their seemingly haphazard cross-continent tour helps Burt and Verona to discover their own home, and by extension, their own sense of family.
Co-writers Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida avoid the revolving door of characters - and often times, caricatures - typical of other introspective coming-of-age stories and instead weave together an intricate mesh of genuine people with real stories and ideas that are incredibly comical, but still truthful. An excellent ensemble cast fleshes each character out fully, bringing those people to dynamic life on-screen. Krasinski (The Office) as Burt is simply perfect as an adorable, committed geek and boyfriend. On the whole, Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) delivers a fairly strong performance as Burt's expecting girlfriend Verona. The most noteworthy supporting cast members are without a doubt Maggie Gyllenhaal, Josh Hamilton and Allison Janney. Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight) is arguably as recognizable as her younger brother Jake and, in Away We Go, she proves her ability to command the screen even as a supporting character: LN, an eccentric, anti-stroller professor. Her husband, Roderick (Hamilton) is just as hilariously bizarre as a quasi-surfer-intellectual. Janney (Juno) as Lily, Verona's offensive and loudmouthed ex-boss, is at her best as well.
However amazing the cast members, they play a secondary role to the overall look the director gives the film. Away We Go is truly a work of art. Sam Mendes is famed for creating iconic scenes - think the rose petal bath shot in American Beauty - and he certainly has more than a few in Away We Go, particularly the shot of the fragmentation of a plane on skyscraper windows. Moreover, Mendes not only ensures that the shot will be framed perfectly, but that every object in the frame, all the way down to pens and pencils, will be artfully arranged. In doing so, he crafts a film that's so intoxicating to look at, it could still be entertaining with the sound off.
Burt and Verona may not actually find that magical place called "home" - but that's not really the point. Although it undoubtedly sounds quite a bit cheesy, the point is the journey. We don't find out what a family is or what a home should feel like by remaining stationary - we have to search, we have to grow and we have to evolve. Mendes, Eggers and Vida artfully drive this idea home, as we watch Burt and Verona make the leap of faith we will likely all one day have to make. Luckily for us, after watching Away We Go, growing up seems much more hopeful.
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