Away We Go

VERDICT:

7/10 Aiden R. Dopplegangers

A very sweet, quirky movie that I ended up liking more than I thought I would.

Away We Go is about two parents-to-be that go through a mid-life crisis of sorts and decide to travel to various locations across the country to find the perfect place to call home for both themselves and their child. Along each stop they meet up with various eccentric couples that each help them discover the kind of parents and husband/wife team they want to be.

The movie starts out as a kind of adult version of Juno and runs with it for a good deal of the script. It's got the snarky dialogue and more likable, endearing characters than you can shake a stick at. They don't say things like "wizard" or "homeskillet" in Away We go, but whatever, it works. Juno's a good movie, this is too.

I didn't find myself laughing as hard as everyone else was, but it's the kind of comedy that I can appreciate without feeling like I have a shitty sense of humor.

But there's just something about it that didn't grab me from the get-go and it wasn't until about an hour or so in that I really started to enjoy the direction the movie was going in. But once the script really catches it's stride, it has a lot of really heartfelt and impressive things to say about life, parenthood, and what really matters in relationships.

Works well as a date movie, but it's a good movie in its own right either way. It's just one of those movies that leaves you feeling good about life.

Everyone in the cast is very good (Maya Rudolph can act? Sure, why not), the characters are all really fleshed out and unique, and director Sam Mendes does a good job with a genre that he's for the most part pretty unfamiliar with. Soundtrack is pretty good too, kinda like Garden State with a couple of great Dylan tracks as a bonus.

And a big shout out to Allison Janney (Juno's step-mom in Juno) as the absolutely hilarious wife of the first couple the main characters visit in Arizona. No idea she could be so funny, but she rocked.

I just saw this movie with my good buddy Fred and he loved it. Maybe it wasn't my kind of movie to start with, but it won me over anyway. Being that I highly respect Fred's opinions on these matters, if you think this might be your kind of thing, then go with Fred on this one.

More importantly, I am going to sue the shit out of Jon Krasinski. Mofo totally stole my look.

Call me crazy, but throw some glasses on me and I think some shit is up.