I just read this review...although I have only seen trailers for Away We Go, my blood started to curdle a bit. I have seen Revolutionary Road and I would love to read this author's essay on a comparative take on the two. Yes she wrote a review of one movie, but still...

I am not married, have no children yet still am interested in a story of 2 people trying to find a balance of true and actual world they live in and the idealized yet unrealized self hitting walls, and in their case, not alone.

Referring back to R.R., sounds like this pair will survive, unlike April.

Specifically the West Coast SF neurotic nice people sensibility -- cousin of the Woody Allen New York neurotic freak sensibility.

Both are whiny and self-absorbed but one is NYC and the other SF. I wonder how Stephanie Zackarek reviews and feels about Woody Allen?

yojimbo: "Specifically the West Coast SF neurotic nice people sensibility -- cousin of the Woody Allen New York neurotic freak sensibility. Both are whiny and self-absorbed but one is NYC and the other SF. I wonder how Stephanie Zackarek reviews and feels about Woody Allen?"

Or better yet, how does Woody Allen feel about the New York neurotic freak sensibility? If you watch his movies, Allen himself doesn't seem to like New York neurotics all that much -- including himself. He only happens to hate West-Coast vapidity even more. (Has Allen ever made a movie about Midwesterners?)

If you want to find out what Stephanie Zacharek thinks of Woody Allen, go to this page on Salon:

http://dir.salon.com/topics/woody_allen/

(I hope I don't get in trouble for putting that in this message -- Salon has a rule against putting links in posts.)

You'll find several Zacharek reviews, and also several by former Salon contributor Charles Taylor (whom I've been told is Zacharek's husband).

For "Hollywood Ending" review, Zacharek said that Woody Allen "has been slouching toward irrelevance for 20 years now." So I don't think she's very fond of him.

Very interesting distinction an earlier poster pointed out! As a New Yorker, I must admit my bias and state a preference for East Coast neurotics - at least they're not so damn sanctimonious. I know not all West Coasters are like that (and, hey, we have Park Slope and Cambridge out here), of course.

I think this movie sounds insufferable.

pointed out the distinction between Christian and Jewish obstacles to romantic happiness. In the case of the former, the family represents the impediment. Think Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, etc.

Woody Allen brought the Jewish variant to the mainstream public, where it's the man's neuroses that keep the couple apart. Or it can be the woman's as well, or in this case the couple together. Few of us live in a world where families can keep couples apart, but neuroses are quite common.

I'm a fan of Eggers and have enjoyed the Sam Mendes movies I've seen. And to a certain extent, I'm probably one of those aimless whiners portrayed in "Away We Go." But the combination of these three things seems to just be a recipe for annoyance. Maybe for typical Salon readers, "Away We Go" is just an exercise in looking in the mirror for 90+ minutes. Not so much fun.

This movie's marketing screams "look at this! It's so indie!" Hopefully the movie is different, but "indie" as a brand is so tiresome.

I saw "American Beauty" and HATED it - finding it smug and contemptuous of virtually everything and everyone. (In fact, we've been attending 2-3 movies a month for decades and I'd rate it the worst movie I've ever seen. But I wasn't too surprised after learning who the director was. We'd lived in Britain for a year with our kids and very quickly discovered just how much disdain the supposedly educated Brits have for Americans.) My 60 year old husband and I saw "Away We Go" at a screening this week and thought it slow, but with some hilarious moments. Yes, it's self absorbed, as most people tend to be, and it ends all too neatly. But it was fun to see what felt like a realistic portrayal of a close well meaning couple's interactions, and I doubt anyone would begrudge the price of the ticket after leaving the theater.

I saw a special screening of this film and thought it was very unremarkable, and like Zacharek I never really connected with the characters. It did have some laughs here and there, but ultimately the rootlessness it was trying to portray was so light-hearted and superficial that in the end I don't think the film had anything to say.

Both Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida were in attendance, and during a question and answer session at the end Eggers even insinuated the film was just fluff. I think that pretty much says it all.

thank you. I'm one of the few people I know who HATED American Beauty as well. I liked some of the chemistry between Kevin Spacey and the teen...but those moments maybe amounted to a minute or two total. Contemptuous, cliche and hateful in the extreme. Plot heavy. A Brit doing his "take" on terrible suburban America. Sigh.

I feel like pinball machine balls when I see this review.

Bounced from Mendes (ugh) to Krasinski (one note, I fear) to Rudolph (can't see her being married to Krasinski) to Eggers (some props, but the cutesyness could worry me) to Vida (unknown).

That's all. I'll likely rent it because of Eggers.

...but I will not spend one dime to see John Krasinski in anything. I mean - what were the casting people thinking? Y-A-W-N !! The guy is as exciting as a billboard. There could have been a co-star with personality. Someone that actually has chemistry with Rudolph. UGH !

No way, now how.... uh-uh.

The issue I generally see with people reviewing Mendes' work is that they generally focus on storyline, rather than the cinematography. And it consistently bothers me because than man shoots films SOOOOO beautifully and no one seems to realize it. Road to Perdition, though a mediocre film in story, was a stunning example of symmetry in film. It's absolutely beautiful.

I don't know the full extent of this film's shot capacity, but if it's anything like his previous films, then I can assume that just the cinematography will be worth the price of admission.