Mendes trades the confines of the white picket fences and brightly coloured mail boxes (both American Beauty and Revolutionary Road saw him examining odd behaviour within this type of location) for the open road and interchanging cities. The couple bounce around from Phoenix to Madison to Montreal, all set apart and yet bound together by a title card stating the city they're on their way to (It's not that hard to guess it takes the form of "Away to Phoenix," for example). And it's a refreshing change of not only locations but pace for Mendes, having been used to slow burning, methodical filmmaking with the aforementioned American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, as well as Road To Perdition and even Jarhead. It's not necessarily better - I think he'll always be more comfortable working with his serious-with-a-dose-of-black-humour cap on - but just nice to see as a contrast from the once-stage director.
What's most important about Away We Go is the fact that we truly care about the young couple. The film starts by dropping us into their lives at the moment they realise she's pregnant - in a comical bedroom scene that's as uncomfortable as it is charming - and take us back out before the event you'd expect the whole thing to build towards (you can probably guess just by looking at the plot). And yet it has all of the emotional payoff that you could hope for, and that is precisely because we grow to care about the couple within the film's 95-plus minute runtime. Mark my words, that's not a happy accident, it only appears so. Mendes talent as a filmmaker who brings us tales plucked in nature from real life is why Away We Go just works.
I sense that Away We Go will perhaps turn some people off just in principle because of it's quirky and cute nature. The main characters are genuinely nice people - are modern-day movie goers generally interested in that sort of thing? Sometimes they are, but sex and death seem to sell better. Despite some unevenness and a sense of it feeling longer than it actually is, it's very funny, thoroughly enjoyable and emotionally satisfying all at once. I really can't see there being a more naturally charming and likeable movie released this year, and we have the combined savvy direction, witty and honest writing, and fetching characters (and performances) to thank for that.
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