A deft blend of road movie, smarter-than-average comedy and thirtysomething love story, Away We Go marks a delightful departure for the Oscar®-winning heavyweight Sam Mendes (American Beauty; Road to Perdition; Revolutionary Road) – and an elegant screenwriting debut by the highly acclaimed novelists Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. TV superstars Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) and John Krasinski (The Office) play slightly shambolic married couple Verona and Burt, who are happily expecting but can’t decide where to raise their increasingly imminent infant. Both partners are classic overgrown adolescents: shabby at the edges, used to their own way, and not committed to very much except each other. Only John’s eccentric parents (hilariously embodied by Catherine O’Hara and Jeff Daniels) provide any concrete reason to remain where they’re living in Colorado. So when the grandparents-to-be announce an impromptu move to Belgium, Burt and Verona take the cue to reassess their own geographical arrangements. Since their jobs are flexible, the world is their oyster: so just where is best to raise a child these days? With friends beckoning them from all corners of the States, they take off on a road trip to try out some potential nesting spots. An incident-packed jaunt ensues, as they check out new cities and catch up with some old friends – who tend, as old friends will, not to be quite as remembered. There’s Verona’s former colleague Lily (Alison Janney), in Phoenix, who’s all too keen to share information about the stickier side of parenthood. There’s Burt’s Wisconsinbased cousin LN (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who is full of overbearing earth mother dogma. And then there are the old classmates in Montreal who give Burt and Verona a chastening reminder of just how complicated family life can get… Exquisitely shot by Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and with superb original songs by Alexi Murdoch, this chronicle of late-onset growing up is both sharp and moving – a superb balance of warmth, wit and cutting commentary upon some of the world’s best and worst approaches to parenthood. Most impressive of all is the construction by Krasinski and Rudolph of a central couple who feel absolutely real – not kooky indie wackjobs, not perfectly groomed romcom robots, but flawed, intelligent, funny people with their own histories and hopes.