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"Away We Go" is "What to Expect When You're Expecting" meets "Places Rated Almanac."
By year's end or later, when it's on DVD, it might make a great baby shower gift, to assure the expectant mother that she's not the only woman who can tell strangers she's six months pregnant with a girl and have them insist she's further along -- with a boy.
It's a sweet (and R-rated) summer tonic for those with the taste of ashes in their mouth from watching "Revolutionary Road" on DVD. Sam Mendes directed both, but that searing movie is about a couple who drown in disappointment and despair and this dramedy is about a pair staring headlong into the promise and possibilities of life as a family.
They realize there's no place like home, but they just don't know where home should be.
Unmarried longtime couple Burt (John Krasinski), 33, and Verona (Maya Rudolph), 34, are living in Colorado to be close to his parents when they learn they're expecting their first child. When his folks announce they're leaving the country for two years, a month before the baby's birth, Burt and Verona realize they could go anywhere.
He's in insurance futures and she is a medical illustrator so they can work from home -- wherever they decide that will be. Like high school students scouting colleges, they embark on a trip to North American cities where they have friends or siblings.
"Away We Go" charts their comic and sobering journeys to visit old pals who are outrageously wacky or seemingly living an ideal life until the hidden heartbreak floats to the surface.
Allison Janney is a riot as Verona's former boss, now living in Phoenix with her family and never stopping to edit her inappropriate comments before blurting them out -- in a very loud voice. A reunion with a childhood friend who is now the mother of two, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, is the most preposterous but produces the movie's biggest laugh.
Paul Schneider, who played Ryan Gosling's brother in "Lars and the Real Girl," does a terrific job in brief scenes as Burt's brother, whose life has taken an unexpectedly sharp turn.
- Starring: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph.
- Rating: R for language and some sexual content.
Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida wrote the screenplay for "Away We Go" after learning they were expecting their first child. Its original ending (included in the Vintage Books published screenplay) was chucked in favor of a far better, more touching one.
Krasinski's Burt is a bit of a distant cousin to Jim on "The Office," without the knowing wide-eyed looks at the camera. For "Away We Go," the actor wears glasses and a beard, but his distinctive qualities -- tenderness with a sheen of goofiness -- come through.
Rudolph, a comedic chameleon on "Saturday Night Live," where she portrayed Oprah Winfrey, Donatella Versace and Michelle Obama, nicely underplays Verona. She strikes just the right subtle notes with her exasperation, stance about marriage and realization that her sister is right when she says of their late parents, "You're bringing them back in a little way."
Movies about warring or chilly couples, such as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" or "Ordinary People," may give actors something to sink their teeth into, but stories about love gone right have their place, too. And "Away We Go" is just that, with two for the road ... of life.
