What Dave and Vendela did is, instead of turning the characters inwards to face each other the way most love stories do, they turn them outwards to face the world and send them on this road trip where they encounter versions of themselves and what they might become.

Q: There's also a subtle melancholy throughout the film -- even though nothing tragic occurs -- that is very haunting.

A: That melancholy was also in the script, and I really wanted to articulate that up front, so the audience wouldn't interpret the right turn the movie takes as a shock tactic. I wanted the viewer to know on some level there was something else coming that wasn't just comedy. That's where the music came in. It's like having another character in the film. Even as the characters are going through these high-energy, broad-comedy scenes, there's this plaintive, wistful side that's being articulated.

Q: I was really surprised by Maya Rudolph's performance. Because she was so funny on Saturday Night Live, I couldn't conceive of her ever playing a ''real'' character.

A: Dave and Vendela had suggested her, and I wasn't sure, because of what you're talking about. Normally the SNL trajectory is you leave the show, you make a couple of broad comedies and then, if you're lucky -- if you're Steve Martin or Bill Murray -- you graduate to playing serious roles over time. But she came in and auditioned and blew me away. I really think she's a special person. It's great when you find yourself in the presence of people who have so much talent they have not used, because they make you look so smart for casting them [laughs].

The only question was getting her and John together and making them into a couple, because they're different in age and experience. Maya is a mother and has had all the experiences in the film, while John is younger. I needed to see what their dynamic was. Once it was clear they got on like a house on fire and were delighted in each other's company, it was a no-brainer. Maya is now a leading actress. This is the beginning of the second part of her career.

Q: This is your second movie in a row about marriage, but the two films feel very different -- not just in tone and subject matter, but also in style. This has the loose energy of an independent picture, where Revolutionary Road had the heft and weight of a big-studio movie.

A: Making Revolutionary Road was like threading a needle. It was like spending every day working with a microscope. The upside to that is you get very, very close. The downside is you don't have any peripheral vision. You don't see the world in which the characters live properly, because you're so concerned with what's in front of the microscope lens. Here, I was determined to put back my peripheral vision and look around, shoot the landscape and not be so proscriptive about what I did.

Also, I wanted to work with new people. There wasn't a single person in this movie -- the cinematographer, editor, production designer -- that I had worked with before, other than a couple of the actors, and that was deliberate, because I wanted to shock myself out of any habits I may have and make something fast with spontaneity, where I didn't always have the money to shoot an extra two days.

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