In January of this year I found myself single.

Alone.

Divorced.

After ten years "me and her" had become "me" and "her".

At that point I went to see Sam Mendes "Revolutionary Road".

Art as a mirror for real life.

All the hurt, the heartache, the infidelity, the lies, the betrayal...here was my life and my experience writ large and in glorious technicolour.

Fast forward six months and I'm watching Mendes latest "Away We Go".

It's uplifting, amusing, bright, light and hopefull. The message this time around is that love can work, that there are other people who can love us just as much as we love them, that despite the myriad dysfunctional relationships it doesn't have to be that way.

My own circumstances reflect those in this film...things are brighter and lighter. Mendes has given me two films this year that perfectly capture my life; I don't know how "good" either film is, I'm not a critic, but what I do know is that in "Away We Go" he has captured the best of times after the worst of times.

This is a really wonderful movie. It has a real romance feel to it without any of the cliche's everyone is used to seeing and both the leads are compelling viewing (as is all of the supporting cast). I personally laughed out loud numerous times and thought this was the perfect film to kick off the fest and will definitley return for a 2nd viewing when it's on general release.

You really can't miss this movie - it has such moving and funny moments that capture real life aspects that are enhanced for the purposes of cinema but have a real true feel to them all.

GO SEE IT!

Happy go lucky, a bit cheesy, (quite rude) but ultimately enjoyable 30something romp through a snapshot of some funny characters in the middle of varying degrees of conflict. Some excellent laugh out loud moments. Not a romantic comedy, but both funny and romantic. This film has a feel good factor so high it would stop you from being sunburnt on a summers day.

As an EIFF competition winner, I was fortunate enough to see this at the private screening on Wed 17th. Introduced in person by director Sam Mendes, the film was an enjoyable, gentle comedy. The 2 main characters were (to me) relative unknowns but played very likeable characters who the audience could actually care about. Most of the comedy came from the assorted eccentric and downright bizarre friends & relatives they met up with on their travels, some better-known faces among them. An easy-to-watch, pleasant evening's viewing. I would highly recommend going to see it!
Sadly, although OH & myself were at the show, on the red carpet and at the after show party, we were clearly neither famous nor photogenic enough for our pictures (they were taken) to end up on the festival website! ;) Enjoyed my prize immensely, nevertheless.