Away we go

Sam Mendes, 2009

People try to put us down, the Who lamented in 1965, I feel Sam Mendes is trying to do that.

His new comedy Away we Go is the journey of Burt and Verona (John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph), expecting their first baby. They live in Colorado, in a creaky little cold house, near Burt’s very wealthy parents (Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara) who decide to move to Europe to enjoy life and are indifferent to the coming birth of their grandchild (who does that?). Burt and Verona, feeling a lack of roots, start a trip around North America to find the right place to raise their child. In this journey the couple meet old friends and family members, like the funny and neurotic Lily (Allison Janney), and her dysfunctional family in Phoenix, complete with dummy husband and overweight kids . Or the new age fundamentalist and unpleasant Ellen (Maggie Gyllenhaal) in whose over incensed and communal bed roomed house, one of the funniest scene of the movie takes place. Yes, this movie can be very funny. John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph’s characters are adorable in their sweetness: they are funny and clumsy, the two actors genuine performance is the good part of the movie, but unfortunately it’s not enough.

The banality of the representation of our society with all its clichés and the way this film underestimates the thirty something generation is unforgivable. Our generation is more complex than that. Also it’s time to say NO to the abused indie-folk romantic music used to emphasize emotive moments but ends up being irritating, forced and out of sync, like a more expensive Grey’s Anatomy’s episode.