Ironically, director Sam Mendes’s first grounded, likeable and happy couple arrives on screen at about the same time he separates from wife Kate Winslet. ‘Away We Go’ is a relationship movie where the couple doesn’t need to evolve, as they are already perfect
There’s something remarkable, refreshing and truly likeable with the happily pregnant couple Verona and Burt in director Sam Mendes’s latest Away We Go. But there’s also something that keeps us at bay from connecting with these characters. That’s Mendes for you – with his distant cinema and his characters who always stay at arm’s length from the audience, these are characters who don’t require empathy but instead yearn for sympathy.
The film signals a change from Mendes’s previous offerings: American Beauty, one of the most overrated movies of all time, gave us little more than caricatures of a suburban family. Furthermore, his best movie to date, Revolutionary Road, gave us stilted characters – but that was the mid-1950s in suburban America, and it was cool to be stilted.
A journey of people
In Away We Go, the suburban couple in question is surprisingly grounded. They enjoy each other’s company, are happy, and more genuine than any of Mendes’s previous characters. We meet them (played by Maya Rudolph of Saturday Night Live and John Krasinski of The Office) as they are happily pregnant and preparing to move to start a new life with their baby. The options are places where they have relatives, friends and ex-colleagues in throughout America.
In this, Away We Go is a road movie: The journey Burt and Verona take are not only of locations but of people as well. They eliminate each place as they eliminate the dysfunctional people off their list, including Burt’s self-absorbed parents; Verona’s loud, obnoxious and alcoholic ex-boss and her hapless husband, their college friends who are more interested in portraying the picture of a happy family than being happy; and Burt’s heart-broken, single-parent brother.
The movie also presents typical Mendes attractions that are aimed at distracting the viewers as well; the rose petals and the long shots of Winslet staring distantly become the road scenes, while Alexi Murdoch’s beautiful songs work to draw you in. Away We Go might not be the most engaging movie but it certainly leaves you with a warm feeling.
Originally published in Hürriyet Daily News on 26 March 2010
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