Away We Go

Take all the good stuff from Garden State and Juno and a handful of other modern coming-of-age stories, and you will come close to Away We Go.  The writing/directing team of Dave Eggers and Sam Mendes is nearly flawless, and the acting from John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph is, I don’t hesitate to say, as close to perfect performances as I have seen this year.  It is full of genuine human emotion, life-affirming hope, and the beauty of finding home.

This is the story of Burt and Verona (Krasinski and Rudolph, respectively), a couple who discovers that they are pregnant, that Burt’s parents are moving to Europe, and that they have no idea where they are going to raise their child.  This all happens within the first fifteen minutes of the film.  From there, we follow Burt and Rona across North America, in search of home.  To say they run into some interesting people and events along the way is a vast understatement.

In Garden State, Zach Braff’s character says, “All of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your shit, that idea of home is gone.”  If that is a thesis, Away We Go is its antithesis.  Finding home is difficult, but not impossible.  Home, like Love, like Family, is a combination of things which go beyond words, beyond definition, beyond even description at times.  Things that begin with capital letters don’t like to be defined.  Which is one of the many reasons we tell stories in the first place.  We tell stories because they tell us what words can’t on their own.  They define the indefinable and describe what can only be felt.  Pascal said the heart and the head speak differently, with a different logic.  Stories, too, can seem to have a different logic, as well, “proving” what cannot be proven, “saying” what cannot be said.

Away We Go says a lot.  It speaks volumes on the nature of Love, the necessity of Family, and the immense importance of Home.  This movie is heartbreaking, staggering, and indeed a bit of genius.  But what else should we expect from Eggers?  It is moving, honest, and compelling.  But what else can we expect from Mendes?  It is the most well written, well directed, well acted movie I have seen this year.  And if you do not see it, you will be doing yourself an injustice.  I can’t wait to see it again.

Rating: 4/4 Stars