Away We Go (film)
Encyclopedia
Away We Go is a 2009 comedy-drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

 directed by Academy Award-winning director Sam Mendes
Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...

 and written by the husband-and-wife team of Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is known for the best-selling memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and for his more recent work as a screenwriter. He is also the co-founder of the literacy project 826 Valencia.-Life:Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts,...

 and Vendela Vida
Vendela Vida
Vendela Vida is an American novelist, journalist, and editor who lives in the Bay Area.-Books:Vida has written four books....

. The film stars John Krasinski
John Krasinski
John Burke Krasinski is an American actor, film director, and writer. He is most widely known for playing Jim Halpert on the NBC sitcom The Office...

, Maya Rudolph
Maya Rudolph
Maya Khabira Rudolph is an American actress, comedienne and singer known for her comedic roles as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2000 to 2007, and for appearing in films such as Away We Go, Bridesmaids, Grown Ups, A Prairie Home Companion and MacGruber...

, Allison Janney
Allison Janney
Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.- Personal life :...

, Catherine O'Hara
Catherine O'Hara
Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...

, Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...

, Paul Schneider
Paul Schneider (actor)
Paul Andrew Schneider is an American film actor.-Early life and career:Schneider was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. He graduated from the North Carolina School of Arts...

, Carmen Ejogo
Carmen Ejogo
Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo is a British actress, currently based in the United States.-Early life:Born and raised in London, Ejogo is the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Ejogo née Douglas. Her father is a Nigerian entrepreneur and her mother a Scottish tour guide. During her childhood, Ejogo...

, Chris Messina
Chris Messina (actor)
Chris Messina is an American film and television actor.-Life and career:Messina was born in Northport, New York. He started his career as an off-Broadway actor. He has appeared in episodes of the television series Law & Order, Third Watch and Medium...

, Melanie Lynskey
Melanie Lynskey
Melanie Jayne Lynskey is a New Zealand actress best known for playing Charlie Harper's neighbor/stalker Rose on Two and a Half Men, and a range of characters in films such as Win Win, Up in the Air, The Informant!, Away We Go, Flags of Our Fathers, Shattered Glass, Sweet Home Alabama, Ever After...

, Josh Hamilton
Josh Hamilton (actor)
Josh C. Hamilton is an American actor.Hamilton was born in New York City, New York. His father is actor Dan Hamilton, and his stepmother is actress Stephanie Braxton...

, Jim Gaffigan
Jim Gaffigan
James Christopher "Jim" Gaffigan is an American stand-up comedian and actor.-Early life:Gaffigan was born in Chesterton, Indiana and attended La Lumiere School in La Porte, Indiana. He is the youngest of six children and often jokes about growing up in a large family. He attended one year at...

, and Maggie Gyllenhaal
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Margaret Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. She is the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She made her screen debut when she began to appear in her father's films...

.

It had a limited theater release in the United States starting June 5, 2009. It opened the 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival
Edinburgh International Film Festival
The Edinburgh International Film Festival is an annual fortnight of cinema screenings and related events taking place each June. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival...

 in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on September 29, 2009.

Plot

Verona De Tessant (Maya Rudolph
Maya Rudolph
Maya Khabira Rudolph is an American actress, comedienne and singer known for her comedic roles as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2000 to 2007, and for appearing in films such as Away We Go, Bridesmaids, Grown Ups, A Prairie Home Companion and MacGruber...

) and Burt Farlander (John Krasinski
John Krasinski
John Burke Krasinski is an American actor, film director, and writer. He is most widely known for playing Jim Halpert on the NBC sitcom The Office...

) are in their early thirties and struggling to meet daily needs and build fulfilling lives as an anatomy artist and a salesman of insurance futures, respectively. When they learn they will soon become parents, they are confronted with the challenge of how - and where - to raise a child and build a happy family.

Six months into Verona's pregnancy, she and Burt visit their only family in the area, Burt's parents, Gloria and Jerry (Catherine O'Hara
Catherine O'Hara
Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...

 and Jeff Daniels
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...

), only to find that they have decided to move to Antwerp, Belgium, for two years a month before the baby is due to be born. Frustrated at Burt's parents' selfishness and ill-thinking, he and Verona see this as an opportunity to find somewhere else to raise their family.

They first visit Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

, meeting up with Verona's old boss, Lily (Allison Janney
Allison Janney
Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.- Personal life :...

), her husband, Lowell (Jim Gaffigan
Jim Gaffigan
James Christopher "Jim" Gaffigan is an American stand-up comedian and actor.-Early life:Gaffigan was born in Chesterton, Indiana and attended La Lumiere School in La Porte, Indiana. He is the youngest of six children and often jokes about growing up in a large family. He attended one year at...

), and their two children. Burt in particular is disturbed by Lily and Lowell's crass and mean-spirited behavior toward one another and their children.

Burt and Verona next visit Verona's sister, Grace (Carmen Ejogo
Carmen Ejogo
Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo is a British actress, currently based in the United States.-Early life:Born and raised in London, Ejogo is the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Ejogo née Douglas. Her father is a Nigerian entrepreneur and her mother a Scottish tour guide. During her childhood, Ejogo...

), in Tucson. At Verona's request, Burt tries to persuade Grace to stay with her boring boyfriend. When Burt takes a call and displays his trademark humor, Grace tells Verona that she is lucky to have him and Verona agrees. While shopping, Grace tries to get Verona to talk about their deceased parents.

On their way to Wisconsin, they are told they cannot fly by airline employees who believe Verona is in her eighth month. The couple insists that she is only six months in but ultimately take a train. In Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

, the couple visits Burt's childhood friend and pseudo-cousin, "LN" (Maggie Gyllenhaal
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Margaret Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. She is the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She made her screen debut when she began to appear in her father's films...

), a college professor with inherited money and radical views about parenting. Burt and Verona bring a stroller as a gift, greatly angering LN as she and her husband Roderick (Josh Hamilton
Josh Hamilton (actor)
Josh C. Hamilton is an American actor.Hamilton was born in New York City, New York. His father is actor Dan Hamilton, and his stepmother is actress Stephanie Braxton...

) are a "continuum home." When Roderick's condescension and LN's backhanded compliments to Verona get to be too much for Burt, he tells them they are horrible people and he and Verona leave but not before letting their kid take a ride in the stroller, which he enjoys.

Burt and Verona then visit old college friends in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

, Tom (Chris Messina
Chris Messina (actor)
Chris Messina is an American film and television actor.-Life and career:Messina was born in Northport, New York. He started his career as an off-Broadway actor. He has appeared in episodes of the television series Law & Order, Third Watch and Medium...

) and his wife, Munch Garnett (Melanie Lynskey
Melanie Lynskey
Melanie Jayne Lynskey is a New Zealand actress best known for playing Charlie Harper's neighbor/stalker Rose on Two and a Half Men, and a range of characters in films such as Win Win, Up in the Air, The Informant!, Away We Go, Flags of Our Fathers, Shattered Glass, Sweet Home Alabama, Ever After...

), and their diverse family of adopted children. Verona and Burt are happy to have found a loving family and a nice town and decide to move to Montreal. After dinner they wind up at a bar during "amateur dance night" in which Munch is an active participant. During Munch's performance, Tom confesses to Burt that Munch has recently suffered her fifth miscarriage and that they seem unable to have their own children. Verona has also picked up clues over the night and shares a knowing glance with Burt as Munch and Tom embrace.

In the morning, Burt receives an emergency call from his brother, Courtney (Paul Schneider
Paul Schneider (actor)
Paul Andrew Schneider is an American film actor.-Early life and career:Schneider was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. He graduated from the North Carolina School of Arts...

), in Miami, whose wife has left him. Burt and Verona fly to Miami, where Courtney worries about his young daughter and the potential effects of a divorce on her. Burt tries to comfort Courtney while Verona spends time with his daughter. Burt and Verona spend the night outside on a trampoline, promising to love each other and their daughter and have a happy home.

The next day, Verona tells Burt a story about her childhood and her parents. Moved by her memory, they decide to settle in Verona's old family home. Realizing it is the place for them, they sit together happily, overlooking the water.

Cast

  • John Krasinski
    John Krasinski
    John Burke Krasinski is an American actor, film director, and writer. He is most widely known for playing Jim Halpert on the NBC sitcom The Office...

     as Burt Farlander
  • Maya Rudolph
    Maya Rudolph
    Maya Khabira Rudolph is an American actress, comedienne and singer known for her comedic roles as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2000 to 2007, and for appearing in films such as Away We Go, Bridesmaids, Grown Ups, A Prairie Home Companion and MacGruber...

     as Verona De Tessant
  • Carmen Ejogo
    Carmen Ejogo
    Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo is a British actress, currently based in the United States.-Early life:Born and raised in London, Ejogo is the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Ejogo née Douglas. Her father is a Nigerian entrepreneur and her mother a Scottish tour guide. During her childhood, Ejogo...

     as Grace De Tessant
  • Jeff Daniels
    Jeff Daniels
    Jeffrey Warren "Jeff" Daniels is an American actor, musician and playwright. He founded a non-profit theatre company, the Purple Rose Theatre Company, in his home state of Michigan...

     as Jerry Farlander
  • Catherine O'Hara
    Catherine O'Hara
    Catherine Anne O'Hara is a Canadian-American actress and comedienne. She is well known for her comedy work on SCTV, and her roles in the films After Hours, Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, and also in the mockumentary films written and directed by Christopher Guest...

     as Gloria Farlander
  • Allison Janney
    Allison Janney
    Allison Brooks Janney is an American actress, best known for her role as C.J. Cregg on the television series The West Wing.- Personal life :...

     as Lily
  • Jim Gaffigan
    Jim Gaffigan
    James Christopher "Jim" Gaffigan is an American stand-up comedian and actor.-Early life:Gaffigan was born in Chesterton, Indiana and attended La Lumiere School in La Porte, Indiana. He is the youngest of six children and often jokes about growing up in a large family. He attended one year at...

     as Lowell
  • Maggie Gyllenhaal
    Maggie Gyllenhaal
    Margaret Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. She is the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She made her screen debut when she began to appear in her father's films...

     as LN
  • Josh Hamilton
    Josh Hamilton (actor)
    Josh C. Hamilton is an American actor.Hamilton was born in New York City, New York. His father is actor Dan Hamilton, and his stepmother is actress Stephanie Braxton...

     as Roderick
  • Melanie Lynskey
    Melanie Lynskey
    Melanie Jayne Lynskey is a New Zealand actress best known for playing Charlie Harper's neighbor/stalker Rose on Two and a Half Men, and a range of characters in films such as Win Win, Up in the Air, The Informant!, Away We Go, Flags of Our Fathers, Shattered Glass, Sweet Home Alabama, Ever After...

     as Munch Garnett
  • Chris Messina
    Chris Messina (actor)
    Chris Messina is an American film and television actor.-Life and career:Messina was born in Northport, New York. He started his career as an off-Broadway actor. He has appeared in episodes of the television series Law & Order, Third Watch and Medium...

     as Tom Garnett
  • Paul Schneider
    Paul Schneider (actor)
    Paul Andrew Schneider is an American film actor.-Early life and career:Schneider was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. He graduated from the North Carolina School of Arts...

     as Courtney Farlander

Critical reviews

The film has a 'fresh' rating of 67% on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

, and received positive reviews by several top critics including Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...

, David Denby (The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

), Claudia Puig (USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

), Christy Limire (AP
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

), Owen Gleiberman (Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

), Stephen Whitty (Newark Star-Ledger), and Peter Travers (Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

). Praise went to the performances by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph and their surprising range, along with the solid supporting roles throughout the movie. Critics also noted that the project was a refreshing departure from past Mendes feature films, being a more "low-key" project than the more brooding and darker films that Mendes has been known for. The film has also received a considerable number of negative reviews: The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

 describes the two main characters as self-righteous people "aware of their special status as uniquely sensitive, caring, smart and cool beings on a planet full of cretins and failures". Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 reported the film had an average score of 58 out of 100, based on 33 reviews.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Away We Go was released on June 2, 2009, and primarily features songs from Scottish singer/songwriter, Alexi Murdoch
Alexi Murdoch
Alexi Murdoch is a singer-songwriter born in London and raised in Scotland, Greece and France, now living in Berlin.- Background :Murdoch was born in London to a Greek father and Scottish-French mother and raised in Greece, just outside of Athens until he was ten, when his family moved to...

.

(All song by Alexi Murdoch except where noted)
  1. "All My Days" (4:57)
  2. "Orange Sky
    Orange Sky (song)
    "Orange Sky" is a single from Alexi Murdoch's EP Four Songs. The song is also included on Murdoch's first LP album Time Without Consequence. "Orange Sky" gained a strong popularity, which is remarkable for such a long song, checking in at over six minutes...

    " (6:18)
  3. "Blue Mind" (5:45)
  4. "Song For You" (4:38)
  5. "Breathe" (4:18)
  6. "Towards The Sun" (4:40)
  7. "Meet Me in the Morning
    Meet Me in the Morning
    "Meet Me in the Morning" is a song written by Bob Dylan, released on his 15th studio album Blood on the Tracks in 1975. The song is also featured in the 2009 movie Away We Go....

    " by Bob Dylan
    Bob Dylan
    Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

     (4:21)
  8. "What Is Life
    What Is Life
    "What Is Life" is a song by George Harrison and is the first track on side two of his 1970 solo album All Things Must Pass. It was released as the second single from that album in the United States on February 15, 1971 with another album track, "Apple Scruffs," as the B-side...

    " by George Harrison
    George Harrison
    George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...

     (4:24)
  9. "Golden Brown
    Golden Brown
    "Golden Brown" is a song by the English rock band The Stranglers. It was released as a 7" single in December 1981 in the US and in January 1982 in the UK, on Liberty...

    " by The Stranglers
    The Stranglers
    The Stranglers are an English punk/rock music group.Scoring some 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" band to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s...

     (3:30)
  10. "Wait" (5:59)
  11. "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'" by The Velvet Underground
    The Velvet Underground
    The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...

    (7:28)
  12. "The Ragged Sea" (3:19)
  13. "Crinan Wood" (5:45)

"All My Days" was featured in the film's trailer.
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