John Krasinski was spotted heading to a presser there in advance of his Away We Go opening the Edinburgh Film Festival tonight.

Sorry I’ve been late with my thoughts. We saw it a couple of weeks ago and then travel and the Wine Flu got in the way.

So as you know I’d been dying to see it. For two months. Watched the trailer over and over. Maybe it was overly hyped in my mind. Maybe the expectations I had imposed on it were too great. Whatever the reason… I didn’t love it. It’s ok, I certainly like it, but it’s a lukewarm like. A like that has grown in the days since I’ve watched, but a like that will most certainly not grow into love.

It just tried too hard. It tried too hard to be That Movie. And in doing so its contrivances became too obvious.

Like, we get it. Away We Go is not a Matthew McConaughey/Kate Hudson pregnancy romantic comedy in which the main characters are always called Jake and Kate. (Have you noticed that? What is it with screenwriters (sorry Duana) and their inability to find names OTHER than Jack and Kate? It’s ALWAYS f-cking Jack and Kate.)

So in Away We Go it’s Burt and Verona. Which is Dave Eggers’s way of getting two inches from your face and shouting at you that Burt and Verona are SO NOT JACK AND KATE.

See?

That’s Away We Go. It’s a heavy hand. It’s over the top, especially the sections with the incomparable Allison Janney in Phoenix and, separately, Maggie Gyllenhaal as a tree hugging new age mother who refuses to be separated from her child, even when, um, she’s actively trying to make another one.

Allison and Maggie are always good. But back to back, both playing caricatures, in a film that is supposed to be about the “real”, their episodes stank of insincerity. Giant eye roll.

Until they get to Montreal.

Fortunately, Montreal is where it finally gets genuine. Finally a couple you know, a couple you recognise, with recognisable reactions and recognisable problems. And the conclusion too. You see it coming a mile away but it does feel right, and really “real”, and mostly because Maya Rudolph is amazing.

She is the very, very best about Away We Go. Did not know she had such range. Can’t wait to see more of her work.

Should you see Away We Go?

Yes. For sure. Just don’t see it expecting it to be the greatest sh-t ever.

And for an alternate perspective – Jacek liked it a lot more than I did. It was sweet what he said about John Krasinski’s character. That Verona is Burt’s entire world. And that this is an admirable quality. And that he didn’t get bored even though nothing really happens.

For what it’s worth.


Photos from Pete Goddard/Splashnewsonline.com