Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski get to the bottom of their relationship in Away We Go

Love Has Consequences

Quirky road trips and unexpected proposals

After eviscerating the conformist hell of ’60s suburbia in Revolutionary Road, director Sam Mendes takes off on an actual road trip for Away We Go, a “finding yourself” parable that also provides Mendes with numerous opportunities to stick his satirist’s knife into many a grotesque human target. Happily, Away’s two protagonists are so appealing and believable that they help ground a film that might otherwise have been unbearably sour. That sweetness comes courtesy of SNL’s Maya Rudolph and The Office’s John Krasinski, starring as Verona and Burt, a slightly goofy couple in their early 30s who worry that they are “screw ups” because they haven’t yet forged impressive careers.

These two are poised on the cusp of maturity, though—and Verona’s unexpected pregnancy may be all the push they need. When Burt’s hilariously self-absorbed parents (Catherine O’Hara, Jeff Daniels) react to news of the pregnancy by announcing that they are moving to Belgium a month before the baby is due, the couple decide to pick up and hit the road in search of a new home and a surrogate family. This involves trips to see a variety of distant relatives, old friends and college roommates in various cities. These visits are invariably short because Burt and Verona keep discovering that the families they are sort-of auditioning prove to be unexpectedly flawed and fractured. The dysfunctions on display range from alcoholism (The West Wing’s Allison Janney, in a pedal-to-the-metal performance as a vicious, sad screw-up who thinks she is the life of the party) to creepy perversity (Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton as passive-aggressive New Age parents who think their children need to watch their “beautiful” lovemaking). Even Burt’s just-separated brother is convinced he will be a failure as a single dad.

As indie films go, Away is funny and quirkily engaging; it’s also sometimes a bit precious and self-conscious, which is probably attributable to the script by literary iconoclast Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius). It is, however, very satisfying to watch two comics deliver well-rounded and very “lived in” acting performances—Rudolph and Krasinski have an appealing chemistry that carries you through the last quarter of the film, which flattens out into a predictable ending.

--------------
Away We Go ★★★½
Directed by Sam Mendes
Starring Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski
14A - 98 minutes • Continues at the Odeon
------------------------------------------------

The tone shifts from indie oddball to mainstream prefab with The Proposal, a romantic comedy that has occasional moments of ingenuity but mostly has no ambition other than to repackage the tried and true. Happily for the audience, there is so much comic chemistry between the two leads that this is one of the few romcoms of recent vintage that is more like entertainment than punishment.

Always-likable Sandra (Miss Congeniality) Bullock is almost miscast as Margaret, the bitch-on-wheels editor at a huge Manhattan publishing house. She is a terror to all who work under her, but no one suffers more than Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) her personal assistant for three dreadful years. The plot kicks into motion when Margaret is informed by the company president that her visa is expiring (she is Canadian) and she’s getting the boot from the country. Her immediate response is to claim that she and Andrew are secretly in love and planning to get married. “Just take care of it,” she’s told, and Margaret points out to Andrew that unless they get hitched he, too, is out of a job.

Next thing you know they are off to Alaska to meet his parents and celebrate granny’s 90th birthday party. This proves to be quite the homecoming, eventually including a long-lost girlfriend, a male stripper, eagle attacks, endless misunderstandings, an unexpected visit by an immigration Nazi . . . and, of course, the birth of feelings between Margaret and Andrew (feelings, that is, other than contempt and loathing). Shamelessly formulaic, sure. But the stars have effortless appeal, a few of the gags really zing, and the audience laughed like idiots all the way through. Let’s just say you could do a lot worse. M

----------------------
The Proposal  ★★★
Directed by Anne Fletcher
Starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds
PG - 108 minutes • Continues at the Odeon, SilverCity and Caprice