Verona and Burt have moved to Colorado to be close to Burt's parents but, with Verona expecting their first child, Burt's parents inexplicably decide to move to Belgium, now leaving them in a place they hate and without a support structure in place. They set off on a whirlwind tour of of disparate locations where they have friends or relatives, sampling not only different cities and climates but also different families. Along the way they realize that the journey is less about discovering where they want to live and more about figuring out what type of parents they want to be.
Acting
Maya Rudolph's grounded warmth anchors every scene.
Writing
Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida's script avoids indie quirk traps.
Direction
Mendes finds intimacy in small moments between chaos.
Director
Sam Mendes
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Maya Rudolph was actually pregnant during filming, making her sonogram scene art imitating life. Sam Mendes kept it secret from most of the crew.
This marked Mendes' pivot from prestige dramas to smaller character studies, predating his similar tonal shift with 1917's intimacy-within-epic approach. The film also quietly normalized interracial couples as protagonists without making race the plot.
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