Film

Away We Go

Name: Away We Go
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Released: 2009
Cast: John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Carmen Ejogo, Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels

Family drama

A pregnant couple embarks on a cross-country odyssey visiting friends and family, searching for the right place to raise their child. Director Sam Mendes crafts a gentle comedy-drama about fumbling toward adulthood, marriage, and parenthood. It's intimate and funny without being precious, anchored by Krasinski and Rudolph's effortless chemistry and a who's-who of character actors playing variations on domestic life.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like quiet, observational road stories where the comedy comes from awkward, lovable people and the feelings sneak up on you between conversations.

Skip it if you want a tight plot with momentum, the episodic string of visits to friends and relatives can feel wandering, and its jokes about parenthood land unevenly.

What it asks of you: 98 minutes, loosely strung together, mostly gentle with sharp undercurrents of worry; it rewards patience more than close plotting.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Parenthood1989

Ron Howard's ensemble drama about family life across generations, exploring how we parent, how we were parented, and what we owe each other. Warm, funny, and genuinely moving without sentiment.

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Frances Ha2013

Greta Gerwig's portrait of a woman figuring out who she is, made in luminous black-and-white. Like Away We Go, it's about becoming an adult through a series of small disasters and unexpected kindnesses.

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The First Wives Club1996

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Away We Go

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Fleabag2016

Both use a journey—physical or emotional—as scaffolding for asking: who do we want to become, and what do we owe the people we love?

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Wish You Were Here2012

A couple's vacation takes an unexpected turn, forcing them to confront what their relationship actually means. It's witty and bittersweet, anchored by two actors who feel genuinely married.

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Adventureland2009

Greg Mottola captures the exact texture of working-class summer jobs and first love. It's nostalgic but not sentimental, funny and melancholic at once, with a real sense of place.

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The Fundamentals of Caring2016

Paul Rudd and a young man with muscular dystrophy take a road trip. It's funny, humane, and genuinely interested in what it means to care for someone and be cared for.

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Obvious Child2014

Jenny Slate's stand-up comedian faces an unplanned pregnancy and an unexpected relationship. It's funny and frank without being didactic, genuinely interested in how people actually talk and feel.

But The humor is very specific and New York-centric. Some will find the tonal shifts between comedy and drama unsettling.

I, the Worst of All1990

Away We Go asks what kind of parents we want to be; this asks what kind of self we want to become. Both grapple with identity as something constructed rather than discovered, and both feature protagonists fighting against scripts written by others.

María Luisa Bemberg's film about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a 17th-century Mexican nun and poet who refused to choose between intellect and faith. It's visually sumptuous and philosophically alive, exploring what a woman becomes when she refuses to be shaped by others' expectations.

But It's in Spanish, subtitled, and shot in a baroque visual style. The politics are explicit and sometimes didactic. It's not a warm film; it's austere and demanding.

The Giver2014

Like Away We Go, it asks what kind of life, what kind of love, is worth having. The journey here is inward rather than geographic, but both films suggest that growth requires choosing discomfort over safety.

Jeff Bridges and Brenton Thwaites explore a seemingly perfect society built on the erasure of memory and emotion. It's slower and stranger than it appears; underneath the sci-fi premise is a genuine meditation on what it means to choose feeling—pain included—over numbness.

But The film is visually cold and deliberately paced. The YA source material sometimes shows. It's deeply earnest in a way that can feel distant from the viewer.