Review: Up In The Air (2009)

Up In The Air (2009)

3.5

COMEDY/DRAMA

U.S. Release Date: 12/05/09

Running Length: 109 Minutes

MPAA Classification: R (Sexual Content, Profanity)

Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman Director: Jason Reitman

Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Shelton Turner, based on the novel by Walter Kim Cinematography: Eric Steelberg Music: Rolfe Kent

U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Review by: Carter Moulton

1/24/10

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) fires people for a living in Jason Retiman’s Up In The Air. He travels, fires, travels, fires; he doesn’t lose any sleep. He’s one of the top employees of his company, delivering the bad news to hundreds, thousands, softly but distantly. He lives in hotels about 350 days a year. He sets goals for himself: achieving ten million frequent flyer miles, collecting signature memberships and credit cards along the way. He’s alone, desperate—he just won’t admit it.

Bingham’s day in the clouds comes to a sudden halt when a new, much younger employee, Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), proposes a new system in which downsizing could be done completely online. As I mentioned earlier, Bingham wants to keep moving, wants to get those miles—and this new program would stop him from traveling. Bingham thinks Keener is an upstart, and he convinces his boss (Reitman regular Jason Bateman) that Keener should shadow him on the job before any decisions are made.

Through interactions with Keener, who always challenges Bingham to step outside of his box, and a relationship with Alex (Vera Farmiga), a woman he meets in a hotel bar, Bingham begins to connect with people—something he’s always fled from. As he does this, he looks at his life through a melancholic lens: He’s surrounded by hundreds of different people everyday at airports, hotels, and offices; but if he died, would anyone notice?

Clooney shows real grit in this role. He carries out the transformation of Bingham successfully, because, given Bingham’s behavior, we should hate him—he lies, ruins people’s lives, and appears to have little-to-no regret. But because Clooney is such a talented—and likeable—actor, he somehow finds a way to show us specs of a tortured soul.

Up In the Air is a Jason Reitman product, and, as is the case with his previous efforts, Juno and Thank You For Smoking, the film is equal parts humorous and touching. It runs long at 109 minutes and feels a bit mish-mashed in parts—the testimonials from fired employees are overly political and don't flow with the rest of the film particularly well. And of course, Detroit is visited by Clooney and company. If we’re making a movie about firing people in this day and age, is there a better, if not more stereotypical, place than Detroit?

Aside from my stubborn complaints, Reitman’s film is a gem. He’s wonderful at using spaces to tell his story, and with Up In The Air, he makes them an allegory for Bingham’s development. The frames are often filled with spiffy looking things—whether it’s luxurious hotel rooms, cocktail lounges, or shirt-and-tied businessmen—but it’s all hollow, even machine-like—much like Bingham himself. As Bingham struggles and changes, we see him become a person again, and with it comes an injection of warmth and humanism into each shot—he ends up on the wooden bleachers of his old high school gymnasium, sporting a zip up fleece and jeans. Up In The Air is a story about a man who just needed to be grounded—and it makes the ending shot of this film something special.