'Away We Go' Taps Parents' Paranoia

Full disclosure: I went into Sam Mendes' new film Away We Go with low expectations. After having been burned by my sky-high expectations for the period film Revolutionary Road, which starred Mendes' Oscar winning wife Kate Winslet, I girded myself for a sanctimonious head-scratcher that would leave me feeling disappointed.

I'm happy to report that I was thoroughly charmed by Away We Go.

The film had its heart in just the right place. Though I did not buy John Krasinksi (of The Office) as a guy who successfully sells insurance to insurance companies while walking around looking like an unmade bed with a mop of untidy hair, huge beard and rumpled outfits, I found the relationship between Krasinski's Burt and Maya Rudolph's (SNL) Verona as pitch perfect. They portray an unmarried thirtysomething couple in search of the right community in which to raise their unborn daughter, though the film winds up being more about finding the right mindset in which to start a family.

My Pop Culture & Politics column this week discusses Burt & Verona's attempt to figure out if there's a way they, or anyone for that matter, can raise a kid together without screwing her up.

Three Movie Trailers That Tempt Me

I was in the theater today to see Sam Mendes' Away We Go (I'll post link to my column in this blog once it's published) and saw trailers for two movies that made me say, "I MUST see that." Unless of course the critics uniformly pan the films, in which case I'll be terribly let down but may go ahead and see them anyway.

The first was for the Meryl Streep and Amy Adams movie Julie & Julia which seems similar in concept to The Hours in that it follows the story of two women's lives simultaneously, though the women are living in different time periods and the older woman's book proves as a guide to the younger woman. In the case of this film, we follow Julia Child's humble start in cooking and a cubicle-dweller's quest-- chronicled in a blog -- to follow Child's recipes for a year. My hopes are high that I'll leave the theater feeling inspired. Premieres August 7.



Then I saw the trailer for The Time Traveler's Wife starring Rachel McAdams. I adored this book (and MUST re-read it again before seeing the film) and am really curious how it'll compare to the movie. Total date movie. I've already warned The Spouse that he'll owe me a movie night and I'll be sure to bring plenty of tissues. Premieres August 14.



Then there was this trailer that I spotted on the internet for an upcoming Ricky Gervais comedy -- partly filmed here in Massachusetts -- that used to be called, This Side of the Truth, but has apparently been re-named The Invention of Lying, which takes place in a world where everyone has to tell the truth, but Gervais' character is the only one who has discovered that he can lie and get what he wants. Gervais appears to be tamping down expectations for this movie -- also stars Jennifer Garner, Tina Fey and Rob Lowe -- writing in his blog:

"Dear critics (everyone), when judging the film, please remember that it is a high concept, PG-13 romantic comedy. It's not [Schindler's] List or The Godfather. If you compare it to serious works of genius it will not fair that well."



I think the Gervais film could be a nice bookend to the Time Traveler's film, however it doesn't come out until late September, but, on the plus side for The Spouse, it doesn't appear as though I'll have to bring a box of tissues with me to see it.

Suburban Mom's Pop Culture Week: Tommy Gavin, Jason Bourne, Harry Potter, Michael Jackson, Sarah Palin & Red Sox

When I haven't been catching up on the latest news stories about Michael Jackson, the unfaithful South Carolina governor who doesn't know when to shut up, U.S. troops leaving Iraq and about Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell being put on the DL (!), I've been coping with sick kids and have been sick myself . . . but that hasn't stopped me from consuming pop culture and watching Sox games. Here's what I've been up to pop culture-wise this week:

TV:

-- Sox, Sox and more Sox. Mercifully, I didn't watch the entire game when the Sox blew a massive lead -- and "imploded" according to Jonathan Papelbon -- against the Orioles. Silly gal that I was, I thought they were going to win because they were up by so much, so I tuned in to other things, like Rescue Me.

-- I said this last week and I'll say it again this week: Rescue Me has been great this season and has drawn viewers into dark, twisty, unpredictable places. This season warrants a full blog post on its own, particularly given the blow torch scene. Damn!

-- Nurse Jackie: Jackie Peyton's kid is creating drawings sans colors, with no sun in the sky? Sounds like the recent weather around New England. Kidding aside, this dark show has me hook, line and obligatory sinker.

Movies:

-- Adored the Bourne Ultimatum which The Spouse and I saw on DVD. It sparked a heated discussion about who would take who in a fight: Jason Bourne or Jack Bauer. (I say Bourne. Bauer would be too busy yelling, "Dammit!" and trying to get patched in to Chloe on the phone.) While Ultimatum's handheld camerawork made me feel a bit nauseous at times (or it could've been the flu from which I was recovering), I was otherwise highly entertained.

-- What didn't I find so entertaining this week? Planning on watching the cerebral Frost/Nixon film by Ron Howard, only to find that I'd instead ordered from Netflix the ACTUAL Frost-Nixon interviews from the 1970s. At 10 p.m. on a Saturday, I could've stayed up to watch Ron Howard's hyped up dramatic version of the interviews, but I feared the real ones would've put me to sleep. It lies, still unwatched, next to the DVD player.

-- In preparation for a column in which I compare my kids' fascination with all things Harry Potter to my generation's fascination with all things Star Wars, I OD'ed on Potter films, specifically The Chamber of Secrets, The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Order of the Phoenix. I still tear up at the end of Phoenix.

-- In preparation for a different column for a different publication, I'm planning on going to the theater to see the Sam Mendes film starring The Office's John Krasinski called Away We Go. It's been a tad challenging to find it playing at a theater near me, seeing as though it doesn't have a massive, nationwide distribution. I can't decide whether to keep my expectations low or not, given that I really did NOT like the last Mendes film, Revolutionary Road.

Books:

-- I'm continuing to re-read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as we're now at T-minus two+ weeks and counting before the film version is released.

Magazines/Newspapers:

-- I've not yet read the Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin -- "It Came From Wasilla" -- but from what I've read on the internet, it sounds like it may well be a polarizing piece about a woman who's controversial herself. It's on my "must read" list.

-- I read a thought-provoking column in the New York Times over the weekend which mused about whether Michael Jackson is truly the last, worldwide mega-star who spans the generations. His music, the article suggests, was popular in the pre-internet days/pre-iTunes/pre-fractured pop culture world, when everyone watched MTV when it still played music videos. I tried to think of another cultural figure who is vastly popular with a wide swath of people, whose accomplishments affect people of varying backgrounds and nationalities, and who would cause people to spontaneously gather to celebrate and the only name that popped into my mind was Oprah. Do you think Times writer David Segal is right when he speculates that there will be no more mega-, multi-generational celebrities like Jackson?

Image credit: Vanity Fair/Risko.