Here we go—another misanthropic independent movie, contrived and molded to be quirky without being any good.  John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph play a young unmarried couple about to have a child.  In search of a different city in which to raise their coming child, they go from city to city with each location conveniently represented by a different couple.   Director Sam Mendes has always taken on projects with despicable characters.  Consider American Beauty with its annoyingly exaggerated caricatures that fail to resemble anything remotely human.  Similarly with Mendes’ latest, the actors are wasted because, even though the central characters are decent and lovable, we are usually focused on the screwed-up couples they interact with on their travels.  The movie is a passive freak show, stringing together different sequences which showcase bizarre characters.

I have yet to understand why independent filmmakers insist so strongly on making the central couples in their films the only remotely likable characters.  Zach Braff might have been worse than Mendes with his disaster Garden State because one of the only characters we’re supposed to like is played by himself, but Away We Go is similarly angry with its hostile depictions of all characters except its protagonists for no good reason.  As a result, some great actors and actresses are made out to be fools on the screen.  Catherine O’Hara and Jeff Daniels play the parents who are more interested in profiting from renting out their home than allowing their son to stay before getting established.  Allison Janney has no problem telling her daughter she looks like a “dyke” or attempting to make a pass at Krasinski with his pregnant girlfriend a few steps ahead.  Maggie Gyllenhaal is the crazed hippie mother who breastfeeds her nearly-grown child and refuses to use a stroller because it pushes the child away.  Now, there is nothing inherently wrong with using only ludicrous characters for the purpose of satire, but such harshness has to serve some sort of purpose or, better yet, be funny.  Away We Go is rarely funny and certainly has no purpose.

What drew me to this film in the first place was that fact that is was co-written by Dave Eggers.  However, what makes this movie so sour and unenjoyable is the writing. The movie relies so heavily on the quirks of those who come into contact with Krasinski and Rudolph and the ridiculous things they do and say, but it ultimately does not develop any of the characters.  The movie is rushed because none of the characters in the different cities are worth spending time with.  The characters are a hollow means to unsuccessfully squeeze out cheap laughs from the audience.  Consider a scene in which Gyllenhaal comments on the oppression of Rudolph’s people throughout history.  It is offensive and out of place in the context of the movie, only used to establish how the character is so full of pseudo-intellectual crap.  Away We Go never comes together as a cohesive movie, and its parts are never good enough to make this worth the money.