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If one were to never hear of Sam Mendes’ prior to seeing Away We Go, they would assume it was his first film. In some respects it is as it’s tonally different than what he’s accomplished in the past with Road to Perdition, Jarhead and the overrated American Beauty. Where Mendes’ usually invigorates a dark tone in his pictures, Away We Go feels like a giant step back from what his normal arsenal. Tonally it’s lighter and feels smaller than what he usually gives which is why it feels like a first timer is behind the camera and not a skilled veteran.

One of Away We Go’s biggest flaws happens to be it’s script written by the husband and wife duo of Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. Characters overstay their welcome, notably Maggie Gyllenhal and Josh Hamilton as a “spiritual” couple who like to keep their kids close. The scene goes on for ten minutes too long and, much like the entire film, is too pretentious for it’s own good. As the dinner scene with these characters progresses, one hopes and wonders if Verona put in a call for The Joker to make another appearance. So does an overlong scene with Burt’s (John Krasinski) parents played by Catherine “Mrs. McAllister” O’Hara and Jeff “Harry Dunne” Daniels. I get that the film is trying to play off of this motif of showing what kinds of parents Bert and Verona (Maya Rudolph) could end upbeing but the script gets too wrapped up in it’s own pretentiousness and lets these scenes run on far longer than they need to. The audience this film is targeted for isn’t going to miss the point so there’s no need for it. Also bland during this time is how Mendes simply shoots the scenes, seemingly taking his cues from the Brett Ratner School of Film making. No, this film probably wasn’t striving for a cinematography award but I can’t help but think Mendes and director of photography Ellen Kuras couldn’t come up with something less lazy. He’s above this, and we do deserve better from a man who beautifully handled the shootouts in Road to Perdition.

Indie queen Allison Janney portrays Verona’s old boss Lily, a mother who wishes she had a better life and doesn’t give a flip about her children. Janney is perfect at making herself unlikable and makes herself someone who you’d want to stay far away from. While it’s more tolerable than the previous scenes, it again runs on for too long and makes one wish someone would strangle her. It’s nice how Mendes finally chooses to show rather than tell how Lily doesn’t care about her kids, but it’s all too little too late by the time Lily’s arc comes to a close.

There are moments though when the film works and it creates some pure movie magic, for instance when Burt and Verona take off to Montreal is where the film hits it’s peak and introduces us to two of their college friends played by Chris Messina and Megan Lynskey. Just when you think they’re going to be the ones who teach our mains a lesson, the movie turns to break our heart by telling us these characters aren’t as peachy as they seem. They cap this off by visiting Burt’s brother (Paul Schneider) and discover the fate of his daughter and how will he tell her. The film works best when it’s painting characters to be quirky or gloomy and not doing those things just because it can.

Of course we wouldn’t have a coherent film without the leads, both of whom are dull. Krasinski and Rudolph are not bad, they actually do what they can to make the characters have some form of life. The best moments between them though stem when Burt has to argue with his wife to accelerate their baby’s lagging heart. It’s also where Krasinski is the most comfortable, as he slightly fumbles the ball in the dramatic elements. Maya Rudolph impresses as Verona who’s believable as a confused mother-to-be. The supporters are all over the place with Schneider, Lynskey, and Messina being the best of the bunch. It should come as no surprise that their segments aren’t handled with the smugness that plagues the rest of the film.

That smugness has been independent film’s biggest flaw and is unquestionably what hurts this movie the most. There’s s good film buried beneath all of it but the film is too busy sniffing it’s own behind to care. If this were Sam Mendes’ first feature then it would be acceptable as he would learn to weed out the smug (unlike Wes Anderson) but he’s on his fifth and again, he seems to have regressed rather than moved forward. The man is a good visual filmmaker as proven by his previous efforts but here he’s just bland. I mentioned it before, but I repeat it again because this could be a lesson to young filmmakers on how not to make an independent film. It plays on all the independent cliches we’ve come to know, some established by the terribly overrated Juno. Had the movie lifted some of it’s pompousness it still wouldn’t be perfect, but the end result would be a better film.

Away We Go is a mixed bag, as it’s sometimes great and other times a complete mess. It’s too conceited for it’s own good and is way below what Sam Mendes is capable of as a visual storyteller. The film does feature a lesson for it’s characters, but it feels like it’s overstayed it’s welcome by that point. If anything Away We Go is like LeBron James; tons of talent and at times great but overall a giant butthole that only thinks about him/itself.

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