Don't listen to the negative reviews

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

To me, an "indie" film is a movie with a budget under $10,000 and where the director's mom does all the catering. "Away We Go", with an internationally acclaimed director like Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead) and a budget of $17 million, doesn't exactly fit that description so you won't hear me calling it an "indie". What I will say is that it definitely departs from the standard Hollywood romcom formula which is a nice surprise.The standard Hollywood romcom formula goes something like: (1) boy meets girl, (2) they deny they're in love, (3) they admit they're in love, (4) they get into a fight and fall out of love, (5) they get back together in a big climactic weepy scene and live happily ever after. Well, "Away We Go" has absolutely none of the above. That itself should get your attention if you're looking for something different.So what's it about? It's about a man & woman in love who travel around the country looking for a place to call home. The drama & dynamics are not within their relationship, but instead they observe drama & dynamics (and quite often hysterics) from the couples they visit along the way. So essentially they are like us, the audience, impartial observers in a wacky story... except that the story happens all around them. It's a pretty novel approach to the romcom, more like a road movie than anything else, and yet it delves deeply into questions of love, marriage and relationships.In case you didn't know, Maya Rudolph's character is pregnant throughout the film and the themes focus heavily on children: how people raise them, how people FAIL at raising them, and how people try admirably in unlucky circumstances. But you don't have to be baby crazy to connect with this film. More than anything, it makes us analyze our own upbringing and how our parents' methods affected us.I sincerely hope none of you had it as bad as what we see in the movie. There's some pretty hilariously bad parenting going on here. And that's where the movie draws most of its comedy from. It's a very satirical film, light on punchlines but heavy on sarcasm. Most of the (bad) parents we see are caricatures of certain extremes: the negligent rich parents who are more interested in their home decorations than their children, the creepy midlife-crisis parents including the mother who is ready to have an affair with any man with a pulse, the hippy new age parents who share their bed (and evidently their nocturnal marital activities) with their children... yeah there's some hilariously creepy stuff here.But just when you start thinking this movie is a total absurdist comedy, it hits you with some very powerful, sobering moments. In particular, in the latter half there's a very sudden dark moment when we wake up and realize that relationships and parenting sometimes come with some heavy baggage. The scene begins with one of the mothers doing a pole dancing routine at a strip club amateur night (hilarious right?) but soon becomes one of the most darkly emotional moments in any romcom. That's when I made up my mind that I really liked this film.The scene I just mentioned featured a great song from The Velvet Underground "Oh! Sweet Nuthin" which earns it more bonus points. I've heard people rave about the soundtrack of "Away We Go" but honestly I didn't really notice anything exceptional until that scene. I later looked up the soundtrack and saw that all the songs are acoustic guitar pieces by Alexi Murdoch except 1 song by George Harrison ("What is life?"), one by The Stranglers ("Golden Brown") and of course the Velvet Underground tune. So basically if you like Alexi Murdoch you'll love the soundtrack.I would recommend this as a good date movie for a couple that's been together for a while and pondering the future together. It doesn't have the standard start-of-a-relationship drama that's prevalent in most romcoms, but instead it's more like what happens *after* the standard romcom stuff. Similar movies about the "2nd stage" of love include Miranda July's quirky "The Future" which centers around a young couple who is adopting a shelter cat, and for the slightly older late-30something crowd there's the underrated 90s gem by Billy Crystal "Forget Paris" which is almost like a sequel to "When Harry Met Sally". All of these non-formulaic romcoms are well worth checking out.

As I know the reasons I disliked this movie are kinda personal, I won't give it stars. Anyways I found the trailer shown on IMDb very misleading. There's another trailer by the way I've seen on a very famous video site that is less misleading. I thought I was going to watch a movie about 2 beep-ups as they call themselves who have a baby against all odds. Actually it's a movie about 2 rather successful businesspeople who are looking for a nice-looking mansion and a free babysitter even though they could afford a payed one. Also they don't seem to have any friends and know lots of stupid people. After meeting the 3rd stupid person I stopped watching. The amount of stupidness was just too much and overdone and annoying and I didn't like seeing any more of it. Some of the things the two main characters said highly upset me, such as saying 'we're beep-ups' (btw and very off-topic it's so funny you can't write a word in a review that is like the first word shown in an IMDb trailer...) while working for I don't know insurance companies or as something like an actual successful-seeming painter, or when they say stuff like 'nobody is in love as much as we are, right?' which is incredibly arrogant to say, like 'nobody in the world is as good as we are, right?' - less words would have been better here, and, well, other stuff, which might explain the having-no-friends-knowing-so-many-stupid-people-thing. If this movie was trying to be pure sarcasm I would have thought this stuff to be okay, but actually the romance music and beautiful picturing combined with these elements truly left me confused. I've heard the movie gets better at some stage. Well I don't think I'll feel tempted to check it out.

Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski are not critically acclaimed, by any means, but they were quite magical in Away We Go; a quirky, misnomer of a love story. Which, ironically made it one of my favorites. Burt (Krasinski) and Verona (Rudolph) take off on a "grass may be greener on the other side" road trip after the unmarried couple find themselves knocked-up without productive futures at hand. Eternal optimist, Burt, sticks right with skeptical Verona as she ventures to find a perfect place for their baby to grow-up. Never really able to argue, they refute about whether or not they are quote, unquote "Fuck-ups" only to discover home leads to home. Away We Go offers multiple great cameos, from Jeff Daniels (displaced father) to Maggie Gyllenhaal (radical, former friend). Director, Sam Mendes (Skyfall, Revolutionary Road, Road to Perdition) provides lots of candid, tender moments that have a way of of melting your heart.http://themovie-geist.blogspot.com/

Who are these people "loving" on this film?? Seriously?? I bet you own Juno and own 20 extra copies to give to friends as presents.The music ... oh good Lord the music. So irritating, trying so hard to be upbeat alternative. Did they steal the Juno soundtrack and try to mix it up a bit. Music was so thoroughly irritating. You're going for an "indie" feel, we get it ... NOW SHUT UP!This film just reeks of desperation, it is trying so very hard but was - for me - not easy to sit through. Desperate to seem quirky, it crosses the line into ham territory. A couple learn that they are to have a child, and for no apparent reason besides the man's parents moving away, decide they have to cross the country to find a place to raise the child. One thing to mention is that not for one moment did I sense any sort of true chemistry between this couple. They were reading their lines and doing their shtick and that's about it. John Krasinski was a bad choice; he's trying too hard to disassociate himself from the office and be 'serious' that his personality is impaired the whole time, he can't particularly act that well at the best of times but here ... Maya Rudolph is not leading lady material - though I do like her - I just don't believe the character, sorry.So they go off, visiting friends and distant relatives each more contrived and irritating than the last. One woman talks about her breasts, a man pours syrup on pancakes for what seems like an eternity. The Nazi-parenting lady. All just thrown in by the writers to be clever or add dimension? Just why the behaviour of their old friend's and acquaintances has any bearing on the way they raise their own child, and where, is lost on me.After ruling people out as potential 'surrogate family groups' and the places they inhabit, they are called to Florida for a crisis , and then ... voilà!Maya Rudolph *suddenly* remembers she had a childhood home and its nearby, and its empty and it looks like something out of a catalog for window coverings. They open the whole house up and sit on the back porch. Wow ... could it be so easy? APPARENTLY! *Baad righting* Bad, bad writing. So contrived!No wonder this was on at 1:30am on a Sunday morning. I'd have rather watched the steam-mop commercials that usually play at that time! 2/10