Away We Go's Ending is Annoying Stupid

Being on an indie Romantic Comedy kick, I finally rented out Away We Go. I'll admit I was prejudiced against it since throwing the love interest Jim from The Office into a romantic comedy is like throwing McNolte from The Wire into an Irish Gangster flick. A very "no shit" moment. I don't expect to be surprised by a performance, rather I expect to see more of the same which is so lazy to me and insulting in a world of "casting to type" which really means casting a woman who's HOT and kind of looks like what you'd expect.

But I gave it a sporting chance and for the first half I was pleasantly surprised. I'm a closet romantic and the roots of their relationship was a breath of fresh air. Not the "we're pregnant and I'm a woman so I want to get married right now but my guy doesn't want to and how do I convince him!" relationship I've become accustomed. Rather, Maya Rudolph had no interest in marriage and John Kransinski was not pushy but clearly the one putting marriage on the playing field. That may not seem like much but the continuing trend in film and television of female characters wanting marriage while the male characters dig in their heels is not only outdated but insulting and tiresome. Most of my female friends older and younger than me are not interested in marriage. Some are, and that's fine, but lumping all women in as desperate for marriage basically says that all of us believe a relationship can only move forward if legal marriage is on the table which is a slap in the face of LGBT relations.

But that's just my opinion and already this movie is interesting to me. The plot is that Burt (Krasinski) and Verona (Rudolph) have found themselves pregnant and after discovering their only close-by family Burt's parents, (short-lived but great performances by Catherine O'hara and Jeff Daniels as usual), have decided to move out of the country they decide to travel across the country to find the right place to raise their baby.

Thus we follow them through a meeting of different friend's and family with different philosophies of parenting that range from heart-breaking (college friend's who've adopted while weathering five miscarriages) to hilarious (Maggie Gyllenhaul amazing as a new age mom who shuns societal expectations of motherhood like strollers and "hiding love-making" from their children). The first half the movie strikes a nice balance between what is expected and what works when raising a child.

Then is seems that the director Sam Mendes suddenly realized this film was supposed to be serious. Cue the drama-soaked indie music reminiscent of Garden State mixed almost too loud to hear the dialogue. Suddenly, I couldn't take the film seriously anymore. A few moments that treated subtly could have wrenched your heart were dragged out so long I either got bored or annoyed. And that's a shame because the scene involving Burt's brother discussing how lost his daughter would be now that her mother had left was not only painful but very true. If Verona's loss of her parents had been discussed beyond a brief but lovely interchange between Verona and her sister, the moment of Burt and Verona exploring the house she had grown up in would have felt right instead of tacked on last minute.

All in all, an ok film. I wouldn't kick it out of bed but I wouldn't ask it to stay for breakfast.