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9/05/2013

Away We Go (2009) or, Where Do We Start This Family?



Still-based, hand-drawn poster graphics like this on the poster for Sam Mendes' Away We Go clearly denote tongue-in-cheek indie wittiness

A young couple are going to be parents, but when his parents move to Belgium, they no longer have a reason to stay where they are, and so they head out on a cross-country-trip to find the ideal place to start their family.

A natural funny/happy opposite to English master director Sam Mendes' (Jarhead (2005)) tense period drama masterpiece preceding it, Revolutionary Road (2008), Away We Go is a road movie and a love comedy that won me over little by little. It was mostly due to the charming lead actors, John Krasinski (Aloha (2015)) and Maya Rudolph (Forever (2018, Tv-series)), and fine supporting actors like Allison Janney (The Big C (2012, TV-series)), Jeff Daniels (Allegiant (2016)), Jim Gaffigan (The Love Guru (2008)), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Monster House (2006)) and others in parts that are, however, quite caricatured, indicating to us and our protagonist couple the various different pitfalls that other couples fall in over time.
Away We Go is written very sweetly and with some laughs by husband-and-wife writer-team Dave Eggers (The Circle (2017)) and Vendela Vida. Mendes doesn't distinguish himself much as a director here, but of course does successfully check off another genre on his list.
The music is a tiring acoustic, indie, singer/songwriter hotchpotch mostly by Scottish musician Alexi Murdoch (Fire Horse (2013, short)).

Related posts:

Sam MendesSpectre (2015) - Mendes' second Bond delivers
Skyfall (2012) - Overly celebrated third pout from Daniel Craig as Bond in slick production
American Beauty (1999) or, Escape by Death

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 17 mil. $
Box office: 14.8 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.87 times the cost)
[Away We Go was released 5 June (USA, limited) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place in Florida, Arizona, including Phoenix, Colorado and Connecticut. The film opened #26 to a 130k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #12 and in 506 theaters, grossing 9.4 mil. $ (63.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.9 mil. $ (12.8 %) and Italy with 1.3 mil. $ (8.8 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this one. Mendes returned with Skyfall (2012). Krasinski returned in It's Complicated (2009), Rudolph in Saturday Night Live: Weekend Update Summer Edition (2009, TV-series), Presidential Reunion (2010, short) and theatrically in MacGruber (2010). Away We Go is fresh at 67 % with a 6.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Away We Go?

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