Away we go

A film which I did hear and read about quite a lot when it came out. A 30-something couple is expecting their first child and in order to find the perfect place to start their family they travel the US and Canada.
They stop where they have family or friends so the entire film is divided into episodes. They meet frustrated friends, a single dad, a strange new-age couple various others and even the, in their eyes, perfect patchwork family with loads of adopted kids. They seem happy, Montreal seems the place to be. But it turns out that behind the facade the couple is hitting rock bottom as she has one miscarriage after another...
In the end the parents-to-be couple moves to her old home to start a new chapter and to make it possible for her to grief properly for her parents she lost to soon.

www.moviegod.de

I expected a lot as the plot sounded interesting and the hippy poster looked promising.
I watched it and wasn't gripped at all. The actors were lacking colour and spirit, the lines they said were uninspired and sometimes hard to understand...The episodes left me more confused than entertained...The film music reminded me of "Into the wild"...Even the funny bit (Maggie Gyllenhall, the New Age Mum detesting the three "S" for her kids: no seperation, no sugar and absolutely NO strollers) was too odd to be funny.
So if I would have been writing this directly after seeing it, it would have been a pretty mediocre review.
But I had a few days to think about it now and must say that, even though definitely not being a fantastic film, it got me thinking. Thinking about all the aspects parenthood can mean, about how difficult it can be to find a home, about the fact that we hardly ever see on the outside how the family works on the inside...
I still think the main plot was not that good and the leading actors lifeless...but the story in Montreal really touched me and made me see the whole film in a different light.