There are moments in all of our lives when we find ourselves floating in the wind, unsure of what's coming next or even where we want to be when it arrives. Sam Mendes' Away We Go is about those life-defining moments and is actually an odd companion piece to his divisive Revolutionary Road from just six months ago. In that film, a young couple longed for escape from suburban ennui but kept finding themselves pulled back in by the trappings of family, work, and "normal life." Away We Go is about a young couple looking for a "normal life" and unsure what that even means. Where should you raise your child? What defines a normal family? Where do we end up when we allow ourselves to look for true happiness? Mendes' film, written by the great Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, tackles these very interesting questions and works because of the incredible performances at its core and the believability they bring to the piece, but just misses the opportunity for greatness by painting the rest of the world with too broad a brush.

Burt (John Krasinski) and Verona (Maya Rudolph) are only three months away from their first child, a baby girl who they both cannot wait to meet. Verona's parents passed when she was in her early twenties. When Burt's (Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels) announce that they're moving to Belgium in June (with their granddaughter due in July), the couple realize that they have nothing tying them down any more. They decide to travel around the continent, visiting friends and family in Arizona, Wisconsin, Montreal, and Florida. What lessons can they learn from how the people they know have raised their children? How is child-rearing different in different places? These are fascinating themes and ideas for a film and I couldn't wait to see how Eggers, Vida, and Mendes tackled the variety of parents and families out there.

The sad fact is that they don't really. The people that Burt and Verona encounter (including Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Paul Schneider, and Melanie Lynskey) are almost entirely two-dimensional stereotypes, painted in such broad strokes that they don't register as memorable, believable, or even that funny. For example, Janney and Gyllenhaal play characters out of a completely different film. They play unrealistic, awful mothers out of a more satirical, misanthropic film than the one that Krasinski and Rudolph feel like they're playing. There is such disconnect in these scenes that they bring down the realism of the rest of the piece and hurt the overall impact of the entire film. And what's the point? That Verona and Burt are the only normal people in the world? Doesn't that say something awful about what Eggers, Vida, and Mendes think about the majority of the country?

Which makes the fact that Away We Go has the impact that it does that much more remarkable and that much more of a compliment to what Krasinski and Rudolph bring to the piece. In particular, Rudolph is spectacular, giving one of the best performances of the year. She turns Verona into a complex and completely realized character. And her chemistry with Krasinski is simply spectacular. There are many different kinds of movie chemistry. It's nice enough in a film with romantically intertwined characters to even believe that they would touch each other much less fall in love. Truly rare chemistry goes a step further and convinces the audience that not only are the characters in love but they have been for years. The way Verona shoots Burt down with a glance to how he knows how to make her smile – this is a fantastic movie relationship that I didn't want to see end. They're both good, but Rudolph steals the film. She should be considered for year-end praise in six months.

As much as I loved spending time with Burt and Verona and think the performances that bring them to life justify the purchase price of Away We Go, most of the supporting ensemble brought the film down from its potential for greatness. Maybe the talented team behind Away We Go were scared of truly tackling the universal questions at the heart of the film. What if Burt and Verona met real, interesting people around the world and still had to figure out what's next? What if the theme of their journey wasn't that they are the only normal people in a sea of insanity but the far-more-truthful message that most of us are a little bit of normal and a little bit of crazy?

Rating: THREE BONES

Release Date: June 12th, 2009
Rating: R

Starring: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Carmen Ejogo, Catherine O’Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Josh Hamilton, Chris Messina, Melanie Lynskey, and Paul Schneider
Director: Sam Mendes
Writers: Dave Eggers & Vendela Vida