Away We Go
2009 • Rated R
Directed by Sam Mendes (2009)

My wife hated this movie.

She said it was vulgar and crude. I have to agree with her, particularly in the first 20 minutes of the film. But as we lay in bed after watching it, talking about why she hated it we discovered the value of the film. It’s in the questions it raises and the underlying hope that serves as its foundation. As actor John Krasinski says in the DVD bonus features, “It’s about searching for a place where you belong and searching for who you really are.”

Away We Go is the story of Burt and Verona (whose name means ‘truth’), a couple in their early 30’s who discover they are expecting their first child. Prompted by circumstances they begin a journey to Phoenix, Madison, Montreal and Miami in order to discover where they would like to raise a child and create a family. Along the way they visit old friends and are exposed to a variety of views on parenting, marriage and facing pain.

Prior to arriving in Phoenix, Verona has fond memories of her former boss Lily and voices her hope that “they could be our new good friends when we live in Phoenix.” After being reunited though, it quickly becomes clear that Lily has no boundaries and even fewer parenting skills, while her husband Lowell is a pessimist who suspects everyone is out to get him. That night, while sitting by the hotel pool they have the following conversation:

Burt: You don’t agree with them do you?

Verona: No, I don’t. You know that I don’t agree Burt. I just…I really hate that attitude. You know, everything’s already broken, so why don’t we just keep on breaking it, again and again.

And here we find what, for me, is the most compelling question of the film; Can what is broken be fixed? Is redemption possible?

This question eventually comes to a very personal turn when Burt finds out his brother’s wife has left him and their young daughter. Burt and Verona fly to Miami to support him but have to wrestle through questions of their own. Again, Verona seems to offer words of truth to Burt:

Burt: What kind of … person leaves her daughter?… And you know what the worst of it is? There’s nothing we can do about it, because she’s gone and this family can’t be fixed, and that’s it. I mean, what if one of us freaks out like that.

Verona: We won’t. It can be fixed and you know it… All we can do is be good for this one baby. We don’t have much control over anything else.

The value of this film (if you can bear the vulgar and crude language) is not so much in the hope it offers but in the insight it gives to the people around us. People are searching for their identity and a place to belong. In a culture where parenting (and everything else) is without a moral compass and everyone does what is right in their own eyes there are many Burt and Veronas out their trying to figure out who they are and what they want to do with their lives. Heck, even with a moral compass and integrated worldview my wife and I struggle with some of these same questions.

But the Big Question which served as a foundation for everything else in this film was, “Can broken things be fixed (particularly in the realm of marriage and parenting)?”

This is brought home in the penultimate scene of the movie. Verona, reflecting on her childhood, recalls her father planting an orange tree near their home. Every morning he would walk outside to see if orange blossoms had grown over night. And every morning he was disappointed. The tree, much like life as reflected in the film, was full of broken things. So one morning Verona’s mother woke her early, along with her sister Grace, went outside and hung fruit; oranges, grapes, pineapples all over the tree, then waited to see their father’s surprise. Of course he was delighted, and the act of hanging fruit on a barren tree became a family tradition.

This story, while somewhat a non sequitur in the film, when put in the context of the larger question, “Can broken things be fixed?” seems to imply that yes, if a barren tree can bear fruit—albeit through the outside help of another—then there is hope.

So, as my wife and I talked about the movie “she hated” we concluded that this is certainly something we as Christians can affirm; broken things can be fixed. That is the Gospel after all. Only we see the need for the outside help of Another, the One who comes to restore all things. Ultimately, He is our hope. He is the repairer of our broken world. And with that truth we can agree.

~ Travis Stewart