Please 'Go' 'Away'

I really wish I could have the last 100 minutes of my life back, because that was painful. I almost started pulling my hair out. I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself: I really disliked the movie "Away We Go." It is insufferably boring, whiny and depressing, all at the same time. Honestly I'm surprised I sat through the whole thing because I disliked it that much.

The premise of the movie is that a couple, Burt (John Krasinski) and his girlfriend Verona (Maya Rudolph), unexpectedly, but not unhappily, find themselves pregnant at the age of 33 and 34, respectively. That is, she's pregnant, and not with emotion. After learning Burt's parents (played by Catherine O'Hara and Jeff Daniels in what amounts to a cameo for both) won't be around to act as grandparents, and we as viewers learn Verona's parents are dead, the couple decides to go travel and find a place to raise their child. Their travels take them to Arizona, Wisconsin, Montreal and Miami. In each place, they visit an old friend or relative, and encounter something they dislike about it. Mostly what they dislike is the unhappiness they encounter about some aspect of their friends experiences with children. Each couple they visit gives some sort of advice about parenting that Burt and Verona either accept or reject. Each couple they visit is depressing in some respect.

Plus, the premise of the movie makes it seem like the viewers should pity them. Oh no, they're a perfectly happy mid 30s couple expecting a baby and they don't know where to live! Waaaaah waaaaaah...who cares. They both have jobs that don't require trips to the office and seem to pay well, based on the cash they drop during their road trip that involves air travel, trains and rental cars. So we care because they can't find that perfect place to raise a child? Correction: no one cares, that's why this movie fails. Did I mention it's extremely boring as well? It's so slow I...I...I don't even have a stupid cliche to describe it.

The only part that is pretty funny is when they travel to Madison, which is supposed to be the city in Wisconsin, but is clearly the only city in the whole film they don't shoot on location (unless during my four years there I never saw any place they show in the film, including campus). There they find Burt's super hippy professor cousin LN (yes, pronounced "Ellen," and played by Maggie Gyllenhaal). The scene at LN's house with her husband and weird child is pretty funny, and the best attempt at humor in the whole film.

The rest of the comedy seems kind of forced, which surprised me because Maya Rudolph is hilarious on "SNL" and in the movie "Idiocracy", while John Krasinski is better known as Jim on "The Office", a show that I don't know anyone to dislike. And comedian Jim Gaffigan, who has hilarious stand up comedy, is in it. Come on people, give me something better than this! Add to that that the movie is directed by Sam Mendes, the guy who directed "Revolutionary Road", "Road to Perdition" and "American Beauty," all movies I really liked, yet this boring movie was the best they could do. I'm really disappointed, as you may be able to tell, because I had such high hopes.

"Away We Go" is rated R for language, sexuality and boringness. If you want to be depressed and not take anything away from a movie, rent it. I'll give it 4 out of 10 stars. This is the first new release I really disliked; I hope it's the last! I rented a few other movies released earlier this summer that I'll try to review later in the week.