"I use different actors for different stories. John and Maya needed confidence" from their director, Mendes said, but so did Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in "Revolutionary Road."
"['Away We Go'] is looser and needs freedom and improvisation," Mendes explained. "It needs loose naturalism. If you work with a microscope on anything, you can lose your peripheral vision. You don't stand back and look at the world around the character. This movie is all about the peripheral vision and lets people exist in the landscape."
Reviews and reactions for these more contained projects have been mixed. "Drag Me to Hell" pleased the critics but didn't draw audiences. "Taking Woodstock" seemed to irritate the taste-mavens at the Cannes Film Festival for not actually being a concert film. It's certainly possible these smaller films would get different receptions were they to bear the imprimatur of unknown indie directors rather than Hollywood heavyweights. Or maybe not.
"Away We Go" has already received one glowing review -- from Mendes. "I love watching the film," said Mendes. "I loved working with Dave Eggers and Vendela and John and Maya. It was all delightful. I wasn't pushing them into places of intense emotional discomfort which I've been doing [to the actors] in my last three movies. I wasn't saying, 'This has to cost you something.' I felt uplifted by it, definitely."
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rachel.abramowitz@latimes.com
