The J. and I originally went to the theater to watch 500 Days of Summer (which we did ... see above) but after the film, I stood in the lobby waiting for her to return from the bathroom and noticed that right in front of me Away We Go was about to start in ten minutes. While the movie intrigued us mildly because it was directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty and Revolutionary Road) and it featured Maya Rudolph in her first dramatic role, we figured it was ultimately DVD-worthy. Turns out we were right.
After a bit of hesitation, we decided to casually walk into the theater figuring that a bunch of 20 year olds on a Friday night aren't really going to care that a couple of middle-aged types are walking into a theater. The film wasn't bad but I think if we had actually paid money to see it, we would have been disappointed and if we had been watching it at home, we might have fallen asleep.
The basic premise is that Maya Rudolph and her beau, played by John Krasinsky (of The Office), find themselves on the verge of an unplanned journey into parenthood. Not sure where to raise their child, they decide to roam around visiting friends and family in Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Montreal, and Florida. The film is incredibly episodic ... the premise is the only thing that holds these episodes together and while there are a few interesting moments, the film overall just doesn't work as a film. In fact, I can't imagine this film being interesting to anyone who isn't expecting or thinking about having a child. If children are way in your past or way in your future (or maybe just not present at all) then this film is going to seem incredibly annoying.
This definitely feels like a message film -- that Sam Mendes wanted to somehow find a way that two people could become parents without becoming tools. If American Beauty and Revolutionary Road were treatises on the suffocating ennui of middle-aged, suburban life -- on how having kids and living in the suburbs will destroy your soul -- then Away We Go is the search for the antidote. It's a film about heading straight into middle-age while trying to find a way to escape all the trappings of being middle-age.
This is not a particularly new idea but it's been done better (Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill and Hal Hartley's Trust come immediately to mind). There's a thin line between a deeply personal film and a flawed, self-indulgent one. This definitely felt like the latter. I can respect Mendes' desire to work through these ideas, I just wish he didn't feel compelled to make
I have no idea why vampires seem to be such a part of our zeitgeist. I do think there's some kind of connection but, alas, I think it will only reveal itself through history. I will conjecture, however, that the vampire fascination is closely linked with the zombie revival that's been a regular part of cinema for at least fifteen years. At the risk of revealing the extent of my geekiness, I like to think of the relationship between vampires and zombies as analogous to the relationship between elves and orcs (from The Lord of the Rings).
Of course, one could also argue that the fascination is overdetermined -- that there really is no single clear answer just as there really is no single, definitive representation of vampires. Case in point, this little gem of a film from Sweden. LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Låt den rätte komma in) often gets discussed in the same breath as TWILIGHT. They both feature young vampires in love with young mortals but, really, that's where any similarities end. Twilight focuses on a tortured relationship between two people who want each other but can't have one another without risking death. It's the ultimate cinematic love story in that most films about love are never really about love but only about seeking after love. Let's face it, there's probably nothing more boring than a film about a couple who are already in love and just living everyday life.
To a large extent, Let the Right One In follows a similar path except that this "love" is not couched in deeply romantic language but one of desperation and alienation. In other words, our desire for another -- for a beloved -- is not a beautiful thing but rather a defensive weapon we use to guard ourselves against the coldness of the world. Love is a kind of necessary comfort and, to that extent, becomes the target of obsession.
For most American audiences, Let the Right One In can be painfully slow. There's a very restrained pace that makes the film's climactic ending that much more powerful. It may not have the bang you see in an American action thriller but the bang is even more powerful because it's so much more restrained. Normally, I don't hold back from leaking the endings. After all, by the time I get around to writing about a film, it's been out a couple of months already. But, in this case, I'm going to keep mum.
Oh ... and make sure to see this soon because an American version is in the works and I can guarantee you that it's going to suck.
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