OK film fans, the least anticipated day of the week, Monday, has come and just about gone, but before it fades into the background I want to share my thoughts on a film I just finished watching. As you may have noticed recently I've been leaning heavily on the indie films for my blog and this is no mere coincidence. Hollywood is constantly churning out mindless dreck, so much so that it sometimes makes it hard to find films of value that can be both entertaining and stimulate your mind. This is never truer than in the months between Oscar season and the start of the summer blockbusters from February through May. I encourage you during this time shun the theaters and look at DVD releases from the prior year; you'll never know when a little gem will pop up and make your day.
Away We Go came out in June of 2009 the same week of The Hangover. It was met with decidedly mixed reviews and lasted only 11 weeks in the theaters. I saw the commercials and read some of the reviews when it came out, decided it was a rental and went to see its competition instead. In doing so I passed over steak and Scotch with friends at Morton's for a burger and a coke in a drive thru. Both of those will get the job done, but only one will you remember years later.
Burt (The Office's John Krasinski) and Verona (an amazing performance by Maya Rudolph) are well educated, self-employed, thirty-something's who could easily be living in the suburbs but seem stuck in a post college alternative lifestyle rut. When Verona becomes pregnant they realize it's time to put down roots but aren't sure where or how they should settle down. Since Verona's parents are deceased they had planned on leaning on Burt's folks, for whom they had moved to be closer to even before the pregnancy. However, Burt's parents have decided to move to Antwerp a month before their grandchild is expected to be born and are completely wrapped up in their own lives.
Since the couple is unencumbered they begin a road trip of sorts where, rather than meeting strangers on their journey they visit friends in different cities across the nation in search of a place to settle. Each visit takes on its own pace, measured by the couples in various states of happiness and parenthood. The first stop is Phoenix with Verona's former boss Lily (Allison Janney). She's a wildly inappropriate, liquored up and completely oblivious to the distance her husband and kids have created as a buffer to her cruelty. After a quick stop to visit Verona's sister, their next visit in Madison is with a childhood friend of Burt's, Ellen (now LN) who's a college professor that puts Boulderite New Age tree huggers to shame with her antics. Burt bites his tongue while she espouses feminist alternative child raising theories but finally loses his calm when her flaky husband mocks his career resulting in one the funniest scenes in the film. You'll have second thoughts every time you see a kid in a stroller.
From there they visit college friends Tom and Munch in Montreal who seem to have created a perfect life. They have a wonderful Brownstone filled with adopted children of different ages and ethnicity. Their house is filled with love and laughter. In Burt's conversation with Tom we discover the couple's hearts are breaking as Munch deals with her most recent miscarriage, the latest in a series of attempts to have their own children. Their final stop is an emergency visit to Burt's brother whose wife has abruptly abandoned him and their young daughter. This final visit shakes Burt's confidence and leads to a beautiful conversation between the couple where they reaffirm their love with each other and their unborn child. When they finally realize where they need to go to raise their daughter it feels as right to us as it does to them.
Verona and Burt's relationship is perhaps a bit idyllic but they are not an uncommon or unbelievable couple. The sentiments in the film are heartfelt, honest and touching in a way few films capture. Director Sam Mendes has a way with family dynamics and you don't have to look much further than the married screenwriters to find the wellspring of Burt and Verona. Dave Eggers and his wife Vendela Vida, thirty-something authors and essayist with two kids, are even more amazing than the couple at the center of the film. As always, if a film has a good tone you can be sure the soundtrack is good as well. With its folksy, mellow vibe it's a keeper and now part of my collection.
It seems that most of the reviewers who panned the film focused on the couple's so-called sense of superiority, that they are constantly looking down on other couples and judging them. The bottom line is they are. That's the point. Burt and Verona is the couple we admire, envy and hate all at the same time because they are emphatically in love. They remind us what happens when two people are the perfect complement for each other. The charm here is that despite their wonderful relationship, there are still lessons to be learned from each couple they encounter.
It's not a perfect film, there are scenes that don't completely work and some characters are pretty one dimensional. But the cast is superb throughout and if the film had been a little stronger I could have seen Rudolph being Oscar nominated, it's that good of a performance. I felt this film in a way that surprised me. It was loving ode to something I'm still searching and hoping for; love, family and a place to settle down.
Showing posts with label The Hangover. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Hangover. Show all posts
Monday, March 22, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
day 61 - I Love You, Man
OK film fans, last night I ranted about the cult of Judd Apatow and how his influence and disciples have spread through Hollywood like pod people. Tonight I give you another example of the tendrils and a contender for funniest comedy of the year.
I Love You, Man was directed and co-written by John Hamburg, a funny guy who has worked on a ton of stuff with Ben Stiller (he wrote Meet the Parents and Zoolander) and after a few false starts was able to hone his directing skills working on a small but loved TV show called Undeclared. That little TV show was created by... Judd Apatow. Apatow's influence is felt here in the tone and realism of the situations which rise above the standard Hollywood fare.
It's the story of two men with different paths and outlooks on life who find out they complement each other as friends. Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd - there's that name again) has just gotten engaged to his girlfriend of eight months Zooey Rice (the very cute and funny Rashida Jones). When she promptly calls all of her best friends and has a ladies night with them in celebration he realizes he has literally no close friends. With his nuptials impending he decides to find some new friends, no easy task for a man in his thirties.
After going on a series of horrible man dates and a disastrous guys night (#4 on this list) with the husband (Jon Favreau) of Zooey's best friend (Jaime Pressly), he meets Sydney Fife (Jason Segel, who just happened to be on the aforementioned Undeclared). Sydney is the type of guy most guys would like to have as a friend. He's the type of wild, unhinged guy we all knew in college, always able to ratchet up the fun in any situation. But it's a shtick that seems a little odd in a grown man, even a little desperate. Sydney lives his life without compromise though, he calls it like he sees it and does whatever he wants whenever he wants to. It's a life most men wave goodbye to as they settle into careers, relationships and parenthood.
When they meet Peter is drawn to Sydney's sense of freedom. He should be, he's the poster boy for a guy in desperate need of removing the stick from his ass. This is manifested in his inability to use male slang and euphemisms mastered by most boys when they're 12. He also has some issues with accents and inflection that might have been helped by spending a little more time hanging out with the guys. Peter's not a bad guy, he's just always put his girlfriends ahead of his friends. When Peter first hangs out with Sydney he is introduced to his Man Cave, a converted garage behind his house complete with a drum set, flat-screen, wet bar and a special area for "private man activities" or as Sydney would say, "a jerk off station." Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
What makes Sydney a great guys' guy is also what makes him less than the best friend Zooey was thinking of for her man. He's crass, inappropriate and disrespectful of the boundaries of their relationship. As their big day approaches she becomes less and less enthusiastic about the possibility of Sydney being Peter's best man. Then there's the issue of Peter loaning a sizable amount of cash to Sydney for questionable reasons. What's worse, he starts to get into Peter's head about why he's getting married.
The comedy here is on target as a rom-com, a buddy movie and gross-out comedy. But what makes it one of the best films of the year (yeah, it's a moviefone list, but still) is its heart. More than the crap Hollywood usually shills, like Valentine's Day and Old Dogs, there is actual sincerity here. There's genuine chemistry in both of the relationships Peter has and the dialogue, observations and comedy here all feel natural. Where The Hangover, another big comedy from 2009, is funny in a more overt WTF was that kind of way, I Love You, Man is just plain funny. In the end, I think it's a better film too.
I Love You, Man was directed and co-written by John Hamburg, a funny guy who has worked on a ton of stuff with Ben Stiller (he wrote Meet the Parents and Zoolander) and after a few false starts was able to hone his directing skills working on a small but loved TV show called Undeclared. That little TV show was created by... Judd Apatow. Apatow's influence is felt here in the tone and realism of the situations which rise above the standard Hollywood fare.
It's the story of two men with different paths and outlooks on life who find out they complement each other as friends. Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd - there's that name again) has just gotten engaged to his girlfriend of eight months Zooey Rice (the very cute and funny Rashida Jones). When she promptly calls all of her best friends and has a ladies night with them in celebration he realizes he has literally no close friends. With his nuptials impending he decides to find some new friends, no easy task for a man in his thirties.
After going on a series of horrible man dates and a disastrous guys night (#4 on this list) with the husband (Jon Favreau) of Zooey's best friend (Jaime Pressly), he meets Sydney Fife (Jason Segel, who just happened to be on the aforementioned Undeclared). Sydney is the type of guy most guys would like to have as a friend. He's the type of wild, unhinged guy we all knew in college, always able to ratchet up the fun in any situation. But it's a shtick that seems a little odd in a grown man, even a little desperate. Sydney lives his life without compromise though, he calls it like he sees it and does whatever he wants whenever he wants to. It's a life most men wave goodbye to as they settle into careers, relationships and parenthood.
When they meet Peter is drawn to Sydney's sense of freedom. He should be, he's the poster boy for a guy in desperate need of removing the stick from his ass. This is manifested in his inability to use male slang and euphemisms mastered by most boys when they're 12. He also has some issues with accents and inflection that might have been helped by spending a little more time hanging out with the guys. Peter's not a bad guy, he's just always put his girlfriends ahead of his friends. When Peter first hangs out with Sydney he is introduced to his Man Cave, a converted garage behind his house complete with a drum set, flat-screen, wet bar and a special area for "private man activities" or as Sydney would say, "a jerk off station." Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
What makes Sydney a great guys' guy is also what makes him less than the best friend Zooey was thinking of for her man. He's crass, inappropriate and disrespectful of the boundaries of their relationship. As their big day approaches she becomes less and less enthusiastic about the possibility of Sydney being Peter's best man. Then there's the issue of Peter loaning a sizable amount of cash to Sydney for questionable reasons. What's worse, he starts to get into Peter's head about why he's getting married.
The comedy here is on target as a rom-com, a buddy movie and gross-out comedy. But what makes it one of the best films of the year (yeah, it's a moviefone list, but still) is its heart. More than the crap Hollywood usually shills, like Valentine's Day and Old Dogs, there is actual sincerity here. There's genuine chemistry in both of the relationships Peter has and the dialogue, observations and comedy here all feel natural. Where The Hangover, another big comedy from 2009, is funny in a more overt WTF was that kind of way, I Love You, Man is just plain funny. In the end, I think it's a better film too.
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