Away We Go

Away We Go (2009)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1176740/]

The Gist:
This is what I would call a comedy, even though its kind of not and I don't want to call it a dramedy either. It's about a couple who gets pregnant (the woman does anyway) and goes on a road trip of sorts to find the right home for them to live as a family. It's a film that succeeds on the likability and genuine quality of its main characters. However, these characters often seem to interact with more two dimensional characters throughout moments of the film and the narrative often falls into a false kind of comedy that contrasts with the humorous moments that come naturally from the couple's interaction. In particular, the couple's first few interactions with other couples pits them against caricatures that don't particularly feel fleshed out (the parents, the friends in Arizona, and a really annoying character played by Maggie Gyllenhaal). This bothered me a bit up until this scene with Maggie Gyllenhaal where Krasinski gets his kid to go in a stroller which I know doesn't make sense without context but it was hilarious and it oddly took a scene that felt highly abstract and made it feel real with the couple's growing indignation. From there I never had another issue with the film, and even through these moments Krasinski and Randolph are always real, always somewhere to ground yourself. By the end of the film I felt fairly impressed, the story was simple and sweet, I really liked the look of the film. As it happened, my complaints were not major, but they did keep the movie from becoming something better in my mind.