Away We Go | 2009
Genre: Romance / Drama
Author : Srivathsa
Synopsis: Mendes gets hold of it, but not very much
Sam Mendes – The director who has been quite promising right from his debut – the
Academy Award winning “American Beauty”, following it up with the superb Gangster
crime drama – “Road to Perdition”, then the under rated “Jarhead” and yesteryear’s
“Revolutionary Road” directs “Away we go”.
“Away we go” stars John Krasinski and
Maya Rudolph as Burt Farlander and Verona De Tessant , the couple who travel around
the U.S. to find a perfect place to start their family while expecting their first
child. The adventures and misadventures form the crux of the film. There are sometimes
in life, we fall into a kind of crisis, where we really don’t know how to choose
what’s good for us. The choice has to come to us. It comes through our real life
experiences. “Away we go” is one such experience, albeit a tad disappointing.
Sam
Mendes is a craftsman of astonishing talent. He could’ve succeeded only if he had
performed the same art he did in “American Beauty”. This time his sophistication
to the theme makes it now and then manipulative. Still the movie has its sparkle,
emotions and colors that he sought after. There are numerous episodes in the movie,
each episode in different places, Phoenix, Tuscan, Montreal...etc.
The performance
of the artists, Krasinki and Maya are very much pertinent for the projection of
the 30 - odd year old couple. Particularly, a few moments like when Verona tells
Burt her father’s love for the orange tree and Burt’s reaction on hearing the Montreal
couple’s tragic miscarriages. These are few skillfully crafted scenes in “Away we
go”. The background score and the soundtracks by Alexi Murdoch are surely adorable
and so is the cinematography by Ellen Kuras.
Unquestionably, the attitude of the
movie is well intended and reaches the audience as crisp as it should be. Mendes
succeeds there, but why it disappoints me is Mendes’ minor manipulation of the unfolding
of the events. Shouldn’t he have tried for Academy Award this year? I’m definite
he has that ability.