Away We Go

Don’t be afraid of the fact that Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, king and queen of post-Raymond Carver literary-genre writing, penned this film. It’s actually a fairly standard romantic comedy that has some nicely amusing moments. John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph play an aging young couple who find out that they’re about to reproduce. So, in an obvious, “Hey, I’ve written a story!” move, they travel around the country to experience a series of vignettes. On the way, they interview old friends and relatives to see who would make suitable neighbors for their new family, and discover love, uplifting ending, feelings of warmth and connection, tacked-on plot device about dead parents, redemption, sun sparkling on water, etc. But it’s not all that bad: The dialogue is actually funny, or at least it becomes funny when delivered by the stellar cast. Rudolph is surprisingly good, while Allison Janney and, shockingly, Maggie Gyllenhaal are both hilarious as inappropriate moms. I’d give it a 6.7 out of 10, which is not bad for a movie, though if you think about it as a grade on a quiz, it’s a D+.