(Away We Go directed by Sam Mendes and written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida was one of two "road movies" that we saw this week.)Lately we've been seeing movies that follow their characters around the country or the world: Road Movies. They have a certain charm in that they are set and shot in different locations, all the while still focusing on the main characters.
We actually have seen two of these in the last couple of days. Yesterday, Away We Go, that was a preview screening of the Palm Springs International Film Society, and then today, Getting Home, the first film in the 2009 Global Lens series at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Away We Go, directed by Sam Mendes and written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, is a sweet story of a young couple who go from friend to friend in search of where they should live after their new baby is born. Starring John Krasinki as Burt and Maya Rudolph as Verona, the 30-something couple are taken aback when they tell Burt's parents they are having a baby and then the parents announce they're leaving to go to live in Europe for a couple of years.
This news however frees them to leave the Midwest and embark on a trip to visit friends near whom they think they might want to live. From an over-the-top hyper former co-worker to college friends that turn out to living in la la land, the couple gradually learn to love themselves even more. The comedy of errors, insults, personality quirks that they meet as they go across
country figuring themselves out, is entertaining, amusing and charming. It brought lots of laughs, smiles and rolling of the eyes to me.(Getting Home, a Chinese film directed by Zhang Yang and written by Wang Yao and Zhang Yang, was a sweet film that we saw tonight.)
Now in its 6th year, Global Lens film series has provided audiences with a view into the many different cultures that make up our world. Offered at the Palm Springs Art Museum's Annenberg Theatre every Thursday evening during the summer, we decided to go see tonight's first film, Getting Home.
In this tragic comedy, Zhao a construction worker who agreed with his co-worker that if anything ever happened to either one, the other would make sure that he got back to his home town in order to be buried. But in fulfilling his colleague's wish, Zhao must travel thousands of miles through China to the Three Gorges region where he had lived. This takes him and his friend's corpse by bus, car, truck, as well as walking, through incredible countryside, cities and difficulties.
Unfortunately, as with many dubbed foreign-language films, the words of the story get lost, but the trials, determination, tribulations and funny moments of the film come through. Along the way not only do we get to see a beautiful country emerging into its own, but the diversity of its people both good and bad. Human nature is the same no matter the country and we get to laugh, wince and cry at its comedy, cruelty and love too.
In this tragic comedy, Zhao a construction worker who agreed with his co-worker that if anything ever happened to either one, the other would make sure that he got back to his home town in order to be buried. But in fulfilling his colleague's wish, Zhao must travel thousands of miles through China to the Three Gorges region where he had lived. This takes him and his friend's corpse by bus, car, truck, as well as walking, through incredible countryside, cities and difficulties.
Unfortunately, as with many dubbed foreign-language films, the words of the story get lost, but the trials, determination, tribulations and funny moments of the film come through. Along the way not only do we get to see a beautiful country emerging into its own, but the diversity of its people both good and bad. Human nature is the same no matter the country and we get to laugh, wince and cry at its comedy, cruelty and love too.
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