‘Away We Go’ Tackles Beautiful Scenery with Laughs

You know those independent movies that are only available to see in cities like New York or LA, and yet everyone is talking about them? Enter Away We Go, the new film by Academy Award winning director of American Beauty and nominated Revolutionary Road Sam Mendes. Away We Go centers on a couple, Bert and Verona on their nationwide voyage to find a nice place to settle down with their soon-to-be family, a place that they can truly call "home". The plot is one of the best parts about this funny and touching movie; it's never been done before. In a world with such adaptations and unoriginal ideas as Transformers: Revenge f the Fallen and Terminator Salvation, a quiet flick like this is pretty nice. A movie like Away We Go only comes along once in a while. A movie not wrapped up in its own self-importance or special-effects, yet a movie that doesn't even have to try to be heartwarming and downright hilarious but it is.

Away We Go opens on Burt and Verona (played beautifully by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph), um, doing it. But before anything is shown (unlike the almost porn-free The Girlfriend Experience), Burt discovers that she's in fact pregnant. And on telling Burt's parents Jerry (Jeff Daniels, playing a wonderful smart-ass perfectly once again) and Gloria (Catherine O'Hara), they announce their moving to Berlin, Germany for the next two years, missing out on the birth. So the expecting duo decides to set out on their own quest to colonize. So "away we go" (subtitles actually come on the screen every time we venture to a new city) to Arizona, Canada and so on, every destination meeting wacky people like Lily (Allison Janney), Lowell (Jim Gaffigan, surprisingly mixed-up in his role)and LN (a key Maggie Gyllenhaal).Every stop, you'll adore more than the last.

Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida (along with cool names) deliver Mendes' sleeper hit to new heights: an actual comedy. Not up its own ass with how righteous it is; political correctness is already funny as hell in the real world. Krasinski makes the movie, however, playing a comical Burt Farlander. See, you can't even say the name without laughing! It totally proves that the Office prodigy and Saturday Night Live prize have what it takes to be actual movie stars. From beginning to end, Away We Go is a must-see.

4/5 stars.