Away We Go (Sam Mendes, 2009)

[knives]

Co-sign to Domino's opinion.

[Brian C]

AWAY WE GO turned me from a Maggie Gyllenhaal fan into someone that can hardly bear to see Maggie Gyllenhaal. Complete reversal, after her crude, obnoxious stereotype of a character in that movie. That's all I remember about, to be honest.

[knives]

I thought that was very funny to be honest. I guess it takes having seen one of those people in real life.

[whaleallright]

This remains the worst film I've paid to see in a theater.

[Brian C]

I thought that was very funny to be honest. I guess it takes having seen one of those people in real life.

Eh, I've known my share of new age-y hippie liberal types. My point isn't that there's no one like her, just that the character was an obnoxious caricature of the type. She felt constructed for the sole purpose of being torn down. I hate it when movies do that.

And furthermore, Gyllenhaal's performance specifically felt downright contemptuously during in bad faith in a way that opened my eyes to her acting in general. I see that quality in a lot of her work now, even retrospectively. Just a feeling that she's looking at her characters kind of side-eyed.

Mendes doesn't come off much better for it either, frankly, although I've never been a huge fan of his. The movie was kind of Payne-lite anyway.

I have no problem believing it's just me but it's stuck with me to this day.

[spectre]

I liked the film, but that sequence bothered me a lot too. It's a shame, because there was a lot of warmth and humanism in the film. But that sequence was classic setting fire to the straw man (straw couple, in this case!).