Genres: Drama, Romance
Director: Jason Reitman
MPAA Rating: R
Runtime: 108 min
Reviewer Ranking 8.5/10
Movie Review by: Kevin Mahoney
It is rare for a film to capture the mood of an entire era timely enough to remain relevant. Up In The Air succeeds with, pardon the pun, flying colors. Blending witty and subtle humor with illuminating social commentary, Up In The Air craftily entertains while enlightening its viewer.
George Clooney (Ocean’s Eleven), the Cary Grant of our time, delivers the best performance of his career as Ryan Bingham. Ryan’s career involves ending the careers of others. He is a corporate downsizer, hired by companies to act as a buffer between their own employees and themselves. Ryan is the best at what he does, and curiously enough, loves what he does. He spends 322 days on the road and as he describes, “43 miserable days at home.”
Spending one’s life on an airplane intermittingly giving people perhaps the worst news of their lives may not sound like an ideal line of work for most, but for Ryan Bingham its heaven. His figurative holy grail is the attainment of 10 million frequent flyer miles. When asked what he plans to use the miles for, he answers, “The miles are the goal.”
Jason Reitman has developed a knack for directing lovable characters whom do not fit societal norms (e.g., Aaron Eckhart and Ellen Page of Thank You For Smoking and Juno). Granted Ryan’s job and detached demeanor, one can’t help but fall for the wit and charm that Clooney never fails to bring to his roles. Equally as charming is Clooney’s counterpart, Vera Farmiga (The Departed), deft at witty sexual banter. Farmiga’s character, Alex is able to get close to a man whose goal in life is distance. Alex compares herself to Ryan, boasting, “Just think of me as yourself, only with a vagina.”
In addition, Anna Kendrick (Twilight) plays a firecracker, recent Cornell graduate whose job is to streamline Ryan’s industry. Natalie, Kendrick’s character, develops a system of firing employees over the internet. Ironically, Ryan despises this disconnected form of doing business because it would ground him terminally (his worst fear). This is without a doubt Kendrick’s breakout role and has the formidably task of sharing the screen with George Clooney. Though she does share the screen, her character is Clooney’s protégé in the film; her acting in no way is shrouded by Clooney. Although she plays an up-tight and ambitious upstart to Ryan’s business, Kendrick shines whenever on screen and shows her true chops when her character reveals her endearingly emotional side.
The film opens with non-actors who have genuinely been laid off recently, talking to the camera, boldly grieving the desperation which unemployment will cause. These workers are all from Detroit or St. Louis, both of which have been hit hard by the current recession, and are depicted in Up In The Air. The first instance in which Ryan and Natalie arrive at a corporation to “let go” dozens of workers, the scene is portrayed as a march to the gallows. The two saunter past innocent employees, who turn their heads in awe at the copies amount of “strategy packets” that describe “future options,” because they know exactly what the two executioners came for and what the packets exemplify. This theme only becomes stronger with each business the two attend. In St. Louis, there is a panning shot of an office which is eerily vacant, almost like a graveyard. When they visit Des Moines, there is an absolutely brilliant shot of Natalie seating pensively in a room filled with empty office chairs, reflecting all the jobs which our current economy has taken away.
Up in the Air was phenomenal top to bottom and was second only to The Hurt Locker of 2009. It seamlessly merges a picture of the current state of economic affairs with an analysis of isolation and the meaning of companionship, not to mention a delightfully whimsical soundtrack. The movie ends with a track which shares the title of the movie, written by Kevin Renick after he loses his job. The song is a statement of uncertainty and anxiety. Renick’s future, like the state of the country and the millions of unemployed, is up in the air.
