Away We Go

John Krasinski (of "The Office") and Maya Rudolph (of "Saturday Night Live") are expectant parents who go in search of the perfect place to start their family in this low-key comedy from Sam Mendes and writers Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. They're an endearing couple beset by self doubt (can they pull themselves together to become good parents?) in a film filled with exaggerated portraits of self-involved and sanctimonious parents. It's hard to warm to a film so determined to ridicule, even when it steadies out in the final act as they find more centered and emotionally generous folks struggling through real emotional problems. With secure jobs and steady incomes, our charmed couple is able to indulge themselves in intangibles without ever facing the tough decisions of the rest of us, and that complacency rings out of tune with the real world. Catherine O'Hara, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton are just a few of the fine performers who indulge in the more extreme caricatures.

The 16-minute "The Making of Away We Go" offers the usual array of actors fawning over the script and the director, but Mendes does discuss how he was forced to shift from his usual approach of "over-rehearsing" to capture the spontaneity of his improvisationally-gifted cast. Also features commentary by Mendes and writers Eggers and Vida, and a featurette on their approach to "Green Filmmaking," with carbon offsets and environmentally-conscious decisions. The Blu-ray edition also features BD-Live supplements.