Up in the Air (Movie Review)

Movie Review
Up in the Air
2009
Starring: George Clooney, Anna Kendrick, Vera Farmiga
Directed by: Jason Reitman

Every so often you watch a film and afterwards you think to yourself “damn, that was good”. You know it’s not perfect and there could have been improvements made but you still really enjoy it nonetheless. You might like enough to be willing to pay to see it a second time. Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air is one of those movies. Starring George Clooney, the story about a man whose only real home is aboard an airplane makes for an interesting story. Clooney plays the self-inflicting loaner perfectly with a mix of charm and sharpness. Everything meshes together so well and makes for a fantastic ride.

Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who fires people for a living. His company is recruited by other companies who are too timid to fire their own employees. He spends more time in airports and in the air than anything else as he flies all across the country for his job. He enjoys spending most of his time in the air and in hotel rooms. In fact, one of the most important things in his life is all the miles he’s racked up on his loyalty cards and the various loyalty programs he’s a member of. During his trips, he finds time to hold small self-help seminars about the benefits of liberating oneself of physical possessions and emotional relationships. He prides himself from not being shackled by personal relationships even though he’s been invited to his sister’s wedding who he hasn’t seen in years. His world is changed upside-down when his company has decided to change its strategy and instead of flying their employees out to the various companies looking to fire its employees, they would do everything through teleconferencing. A new hotshot employee at the firm named Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) has spearheaded the movement. Bingham is incredibly worried about having to live his life in one place (which happens to be Omaha, Nebraska) and argues against the merits of teleconferencing in his line of work with his boss, Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman). Gregory suggests that maybe Keener should go on the road with Bingham to get a grasp for terminating employees for a living as the company moves forward with its teleconferencing plans.

Bingham and Keener are hostile towards each other originally with Bingham representing old-school thinking and Keener thinking about how to streamline the process to become more efficient. Keener’s first attempt at firing someone didn’t turn out so well and Bingham steps in to alleviate the situation. Instead of revelling in her failure, he coaches her and they begin to respect each other with Bingham acting as a mentor. Bingham knows that succeeding in showing Keener the ropes will ultimately ground him in Omaha, but continues to do so anyway. Another problem is that Bingham begins to fall for a woman named Alex (Vera Farmiga), another nomadic flier. Between the threat of being stuck living in one place, his growing affection for Alex, and his sister’s wedding, Bingham begins to question whether he’s wasted his life due to being away from everything for so long.

The character Ryan Bingham couldn’t have been played by just anyone. Clooney plays the part extremely well. He’s a jerk but he’s oddly efficient. He knows what he wants and likes and he doesn’t try to play games. To him, living on the road is very simple since he doesn’t have to worry about keeping a home clean. Relationships are even simpler since he doesn’t have to worry about maintaining them with annoying lame things like caring and small talk. Bingham is very poetic in his philosophy and in turn requires a charismatic actor to pull off playing the role. Clooney’s performance feels so transparent that it doesn’t even feel like he’s acting. It also helps that he has a strong supporting cast with Kendrick and Farmiga flanking him. Kendrick as the smart hard-working woman who doesn’t have a clue about how the real world works is plays her role to perfection. Her character clashes well against Clooney’s and makes for an intriguing dynamic. Farmiga plays the cool customer well; which compliments Clooney’s fantastically. Everyone is firing on all cylinders. Nobody is trying to steal the spotlight from one another.

The script is also very smart. It’s written in a way that the characters can play off of each other very well. If there’s one criticism of the script is that the writers forgot to come up with a point to the entire movie. It’s a weird feeling as you watch the movie wondering what the whole point of the story is but are still enjoying it nonetheless. The movie is an enjoyable ride throughout and you could make arguments about what is the main idea of the film but it’s not entirely clear. It can feel a bit awkward if you’re used to (or prefer) movies that are paint-by-numbers. However, even if that’s the case, the script is clever enough to carry the movie even if some feel as if there’s no strong point to the film.

When it comes down to it, Up in the Air is a fantastic film. It’s not perfect but it’s far from horrible. It’s interesting because even with a bunch of people watching it, each person can take away something different from the movie. It would have been nicer if the plot was a little more solid but all things considering, it becomes much less of a problem than you would think. Besides, watching Clooney’s character act cold towards Kendrick’s and constantly one-up her is amusing enough to be worth the price of admission alone.

☆☆☆☆