Away We Go Movie Review

By Prairie Miller, guest writer


NEW YORK (RPRN) 5/29/2009--First there are Burt's egotistical boomer parents (Jeff Daniels and Catherine O'Hara), who decide at this inopportune moment for the expectant pair, to skip the country on a journey of discovery of their own, while boorishly wondering out loud just how black this baby is going to be. Still later it's off to Wisconsin, and Burt's brash New Age cousin (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who insists that having sex in front of children is essential to their emotional development. Other ill-advised pit stops find the equally bad parenting of likely traumatized kids to be funny, or infertility elsewhere as a source of obsessive nagging neurosis.

"Away We Go" may either encourage skipping parenthood altogether for those who haven't quite made up their minds yet, or leave a kind of pro-isolationist impression that the grass is always greener on one's own side of the picket fence. In any case, "Away We Go" in the opposite direction of the movie theater in question, is recommended.

Focus Features
Rated R
2 stars

Prairie Miller is a multimedia journalist online, in print and on radio. Contact her through NewsBlaze.