Director Sam Mendes (AMERICAN BEAUTY) may invoke plenty of indie-comedy tropes in this comic venture, but AWAY WE GO is a tender, sweet, and surprisingly funny addition to the genre. Verona De Tessant (Maya Rudolph, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE) is six months pregnant, but she and her boyfriend, Burt Farlander (John Krasinski, THE OFFICE), aren’t tied down to their current house in Colorado. A sense of adventure and the desire to find a place to call home propels the couple across North America, stopping in Arizona, Wisconsin, Montreal, and Miami, where they learn the how-to's (and how-not-to's) of parenting from friends and family.

The episodic nature of the film allows a variety of talented actors to appear briefly, including Catherine O’Hara and Jeff Daniels as Burt’s flighty parents, Allison Janney as an inappropriate ex-coworker of Verona’s, and Maggie Gyllenhaal and Josh Hamilton as pretentious hippie parents. But the film rests firmly on the capable shoulders of its lead actors; though Rudolph and Krasinski are best known for their TV work, AWAY WE GO allows both performers to shine in ways audiences haven’t seen before. There’s a comfortable chemistry between them, earning authenticity from their strong performances and a good script from real-life spouses Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. Mendes--who has previously stuck to dramas such as REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and JARHEAD--makes a nice transition to comedy that should appeal to fans of films like GARDEN STATE and LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. Celebrated cinematographer Ellen Kuras (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND) lends a lovely, earthy look to the film, while indie singer-songwriter Alexi Murdoch provides a soundtrack that underscores the film’s sweet sincerity.