Up In The Air
Up In The Air
Matinee with Snacks
Who better to play a man ho eschews human connections and possessions than George Clooney, career bachelor and ladies man? His character, Ryan Bingham, is an axeman for hire – sensitive to the toll of his work, but shielded by his own capacity to live as an island. Up In The Air is kind of the comedic flip side to The Messenger – neither delivery brings joy, the deliveryman can’t get involved, and it sucks for them as well as the bereaved. Clooney’s rakish charm and domestic jetsetting adventures keeps this ever-so-timely story fun and airy.
Enter Anna Kendrick, an ambitious Wired Generation go-getter with plans to streamline the firing process through remote teleconference. Off the clock, she believes in love and the messiness of life, but is blind to the pain her impersonal methods can cause. Clooney can do without what he perceives as the albratrosses of life – family, loved ones, photographs, but he still gets the profundity of what he does to people for a living. Clearly these two are going to teach each other a thing or two about life – or are they? A third element sidles in, a sexy, ideally casual female version of Bingham with freaky robot eyes, Vera Farmiga. Her being so similar to him probably throws him for more of a loop than Kendrick’s oppositeness. Bingham is great at his job and brings sincere dignity and even hope to the process. Kendrick is cold and efficient (yet more shaken by the aftermath) and yet doesn’t even wake up to her harsher methods when technology turns on her.
Sprinkled throughout these cross-country commutes are the folks being terminated. Some are real people with their real stories and reactions. Some are actors portraying such people when more is called for, but it all smacks of truth. It’s painful to see these folks’ responses to losing their jobs, especially knowing how many of those conversations are happening every month across the country. The fact that Reitman could make a comedy about people getting fired in this climate is impressive, I have to say. Reitman keeps things breezy with Clooney’s stubborn solo charm, his elite status ambitions, and his wonderful flirtations with Farmiga. Kendrick’s prickly humor plays well off Clooney’s warmth and confidence.
By the time we attend a wedding, we see the plot’s flight schedule and who has what ticket, but the journey is still the pleasure. Like Thank you For Smoking, Up In The Air’s writing is down to earth and crisply witty, with cynicism and optimism as seasonings. Reitman has a deft hand making his words work on the screen. Frequent travelers will enjoy Bingham’s survival techniques for traveling 9 months out of the year, and we all hope some may take these tips to heart. This movie has great things to say about the vitality of human connection and how to be a better traveler through life, but it mercifully does it with no Message and a somehow satisfying lack of resolution.
MPAA R-language, some sexual content
Release date 12/4/09
Time in minutes 109
Director Jason Reitman
Studio Paramount Pictures
