Reviews of Away We Go have been mixed, but I think that those who cannot find warmth, humor and honesty in the film simply don’t understand the generational yearning that baby boomers feel when they reach their mid-30’s.  A product of broken families, “modern” child-rearing methods, and a desire for material over emotional, it becomes easy to find yourself utterly jaded.

This is why Verona and John (Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski) are such a breath of fresh air.  I found it so easy to identify with their outlook on life; they just need each other, and a place to call home.  Verona is six months pregnant, and the two of them live in a tiny “junky” home near John’s parents.  Upon learning that his parents (a goofy Catherine O’Hara and Jeff Daniels) have decided to move to Belgium for two years, a month before the baby is due to be born, the couple realizes that they have nothing tying them down to their home.  Both have jobs which allow them to work from basically anywhere, and with no family nearby, and no close friends (they have clearly build a Vonnegut “nation of two” between them), they are free to try and find a place where they want to raise their unborn child.

What follows is a series of visits to cities where relatives or friends have chosen to live.  Admittedly some of the characters they interact with are more caricature then person; Maggie Gyllenhaal as an over-the-top new age college professor who wants to convert everyone to her own child-rearing philosophy is the best example of a joke carried to the extreme.  But even then, Verona and John are able to act and respond in honest ways…they listen to her confusing line of crap for a while, until they can’t take it anymore, and then tell them what they really think.

Each city they visit explores another facet of modern families.  Whether it’s the family of oddballs who can’t understand why they aren’t accepted into the social circles around them, or two college friends who have a home full of love and happiness (and adopted children) which can be overshadowed by the despair they feel about being unable to conceive their own child, there are lessons for Verona and John to learn about what makes a family, and what makes a home.