Away We Go; hugs, jugs and enough love to make Shakespeare wretch

In recent times, American "indie" cinema (and I use quotations because, like in music, the word 'indie' has been severed from its original meaning and come to refer to a style, as opposed to method, of film-making) has become instantly recognisable for its tales of quirky, irreverent, imaginative people searching for meaning in their drab and seemingly inescapable lives in the various backwater towns of America. These films are usually written with a deadpan, human sense of tragic comedy, and convince that we cannot expect to find happiness with others before we find the beauty in ourselves.

No change here, then, with AWAY WE GO, the new film directed by Sam Mendes of 'American Beauty' fame and written by author Dave Eggers and his wife Vendela Vida, as Burt and Verona (played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph), set off on a journey around North America to visit family and friends and hopefully find a place suitable to raise their fast-approaching first child.

It is a film about motherhood, about love and family and individuality, and it is crammed from start to finish with emotional turmoil and insecurity; indeed the film's over-riding theme and driving question is posed by Verona late in the story's first act when she asks Burt "Are we fuck-ups?". He replies with a defiant and supportive "No, we're not fuck-ups." and yet of course we are well aware that this is not set in stone, such is the weight (and time), given to this moment in the film.

And so it continues - back and forth, back and forth - as the couple travel from family to family across the country and discover a world of people obsessed and defined by their children. Some of them are fearful, some pitiful, some downright unbearable, and none of them as loving, warm and charming as our two protagonists. Inevitably they come to realise this themselves, and the film ends on a moment of overwhelming emotional catharsis, but though this is logical in its concept, the execution of the story is lacking in the sort of depth of reflection and discovery of character that made films like 'Juno' or 'Little Miss Sunshine' or even the somewhat self-satisfied 'The Squid And The Whale' so effectively touching and moving. Though Burt and Verona are perfectly endearing people, their failures and short-comings as human beings are glossed over with a thick, and occasionally sickly, layer of love, and rather than see them complete their emotional journey, as is expected in these sorts of films, we watch as they bare witness to a series of severely dislikeable, self-obsessed and often idiotic characters before returning home safe in the knowledge that they might as well have never left in the first place.

This is unfair of me, I guess, because there is more to the story than a mere cyclical journey with a "well, maybe we are fine after all..." answer at the end. Of course there is. But whilst Burt and Verona do indeed experience change in their view of the world, and continue to suffer from doubt in their own relationship and the meaning of love, there exists no real threat to their future, to their survival as a couple. Therapy does occur, but it is largely superficial, and rarely life-changing.

There are some very funny moments in this film, along with some truly touching ones and two very accomplished performances by Krasinski and Rudolph, but they seem unsupported by a flossy script that leads awkwardly from one set-up to another and often without motivation. As a result, the film feels like a series of vignettes that could just as easily be named "Diaries of a Disillusioned Couple". It is not though, at the end of everything, really a film, but it is still very comforting, heart-warming and well-meaning, and deserves applause for showing us a love, in Burt and Verona, that can survive even the most testing of climates and conditions.