June 22, 2009

  • away we go

    r and i got to watch away we go at BAM this weekend.  swoon.  were it not for the fusion belly dance concert we chanced upon in the cafe after the film, i would have stayed in awg afterglow for quite sometime.  i'm not sure whether or not to classify this as a chick flick because r actually wanted to see this - and in the movie, verona is not a typical chick.  in fact, i thought burt was a little more sensitive and volatile than verona.

    i love that dave eggers and his wife vendela vida wrote this together.  you should read their interview about their writing process.  even though some situations were definitely contrived for the cinema, there was a certain "comfort" evident in the dialogue exchanges between burt and verona.  the premise of the film is that b and v are in their early 30s, and they discover that they are pregnant.  not feeling particularly tied to a place, they decide to search for the right geographic location (proximity to friends included) to raise their baby.

    just like garden state touched upon the quarter life crisis, awg touches upon that same crisis revisited.  we've gotten older, but we're still "figuring it out."  but unlike our quarter life crisis, burt and verona show us that we have matured and can take ourselves a little less seriously than we did before.  there's a certain subdued calmness even to b&v's freak out moments.  sam mendes did a great job of not dealing us another heavy handed blow (his leonard lopate interview (6.5.09) is very insightful), but his film is not trivial either.  maya rudolph was amazing.  i'm not sure i've ever seen her do anything but comedy, but this role definitely proves that she has the capacity for both levity and gravity.  i loved how her character weighted the film and gave it substance.  this is not to say that john krasinki did slap stick.  he did a great job of playing the quirky, boyish, but ready-to-be-a-father boyfriend.  his character was very believable.

    the whole concept of making a life for yourself.  choosing your locale.  choosing your friends.  all of this will definitely resonate with today's generation of thirty-somethings.  there are also some great laugh outloud moments, too.  the genius of the film is that they never fell at the same time for everyone.  sometimes i snorted by myself, and i heard another guffaw in the midst of silence.  bravo d. eggers and v. vida.  i was definitely taken...

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