Away We Go
Big and noisy blockbusters typically rule the summer box office. So a small, quirky, relationship-driven movie can be a refreshing change. "Away We Go" aspires to be that kind of picture. And, after taking a few wrong turns along the way, it succeeds.
Verona (Maya Rudolph) and Burt (John Krasinski) play a couple with a baby on the way. Out of the blue, Burt's parents announce they're moving to Europe, and the couple discovers they have nothing else tying them down. So they head out on a cross-country trip to find a place to start the next chapter of their lives.
They reconnect with old friends in Phoenix, Montreal and Madison, Wis., as well as Burt's brother in Miami, hoping to settle on a spot that feels like home. But instead, each family they visit represents a life they don't want to lead.
Director Sam Mendes, who has taken delight in skewering America's middle class values ("American Beauty," "Revolutionary Road"), tries his hand here at comedy. But old habits die hard. It quickly becomes clear that the humor barely conceals a deep despair lurking under the surface.
The characters Burt and Verona meet on their journey are outlandishly overdrawn stereotypes. Nothing subtle here. Everyone is bitter, unfulfilled or aggressively obnoxious. Mendes quickly loses his light comic touch and starts hammering us with caricatures of lives lived in desperation. None are believable enough to make either the humor work or the pain feel genuine.
But just when we think the film has totally lost its grip, we find ourselves in a beautiful and well-staged final act. Much of the credit for sustaining the story goes to Rudolph's portrayal of Verona. If you only know her for her brilliant comic characters on "Saturday Night Live," you'll be amazed by her poignant turn as a sad, but eternally hopeful, Verona. Krasinski's Burt is a bit more confusing. There are clues that the character has some issues, but Krasinski never quite fleshes them out.
"Away We Go" is a film journey with detours. But it finds its way, gets back on track and ultimately makes the trip worthwhile.
Public Enemies
Kentucky native Johnny Depp continues to prove he's one of our best and most versatile screen actors. This summer he's about as far removed as you can get from Capt. Jack Sparrow, portraying notorious '30s outlaw John Dillinger in "Public Enemies."
As gangster movies go, it may not rise to the level of a classic. But fueled by Depp's portrayal of Dillinger as a bank robber with flair, and by Michael Mann's energetic direction, the picture moves briskly toward its climax on the streets of Chicago in front of the Biograph Theatre.
"Public Enemies" adheres closely to the history of the era, drawing on the book of the same name by Bryan Burrough. Its characters include publicity-hungry FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) and stoic agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), who pursued Dillinger. And throughout, Mann shows the gaunt faces of plain folks suffering through the Depression who idolized Dillinger and made him into their Robin Hood.
Dillinger's story is fascinating enough on its own, but Mann chooses to take that history and create a taut action film. The robberies, the chases and the jailbreaks are explosive. A good example is a heart-pounding chronicle of the bloody shootout at Little Bohemia Lodge in Wisconsin in 1934. Amidst all the carnage, Dillinger managed to escape, and the incident became the Waco of its day for the FBI.
In addition to Depp's coolly self-assured Dillinger, Marion Cotillard as girlfriend Billie Frechette captures the spell Dillinger cast on those around him. But Christian Bale is distracting as Purvis, maybe because his Southern accent is so off.
The gangsters here are neither glamorized nor demonized. They're hardened professionals, driven by desperation but carrying out their jobs with precision and a fatalism that comes from knowing that a violent death most likely awaits them.
Mann creates a 1930s America that wasn't all bread lines and devastation. He also shows an opulence enjoyed by thieves on both sides of the law. In the end, his strength is that he tells a good story, crafting a stylish and rich snapshot of the times.
Ghost Town
My rental pick this month is a wacky romantic comedy from writer/director David Koepp. "Ghost Town" has two good things going for it. One is a really clever script by Koepp. The other is the crazy comic riffs of Ricky Gervais in the lead role.
Gervais has been funny in his brief appearances in other films, but is there enough there to sustain an entire movie? Based on "Ghost Town," the answer is a resounding yes. He is a hoot as Bertram Pincus, a mean-spirited dentist and all-around jerk.
Dr. Pincus wants nothing to do with people, but suddenly finds himself badgered by hordes of ghosts after briefly dying and then being revived on the operating table. Greg Kinnear plays a recently deceased cheating husband who wants Pincus to help derail the upcoming marriage of his former wife (the always excellent TÈa Leoni).
Gervais is adept at comic improvisation, in the mold of a Jim Carrey or Robin Williams in their prime. He's a treat to watch, and "Ghost Town" handles both the ghost story and romantic comedy genres with grace and heart.
If you're looking to rent a DVD for pure escapism and entertainment, I'd recommend "Ghost Town." It's apparently not easy to write a simple and entertaining script these days. But David Koepp seems to have the hang of it.