Finding Some Airspace

As someone who’s had recent experience with losing jobs, I’ve found that the words of people in human resources departments are hardly comforting. When somebody tells you that you’ve been rendered redundant or that your services aren’t necessary anymore, it’s a crushing blow to one’s ego and you start to feel your whole world crumbling around you. Imagine then the life of Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a corporate downsizer from Career Transition Counseling who travels across the United States to inform people that they’ve been fired because their bosses are too cowardly to do so. That’s the premise behind Up in the Air.

Ryan’s lifestyle of living out of airports, hotels and his luggage has alienated him from his family and basically all other human beings. He’s been thriving in this atmosphere and loves racking up the frequent flyer miles and the perks of his travels. When Ryan is informed by his boss Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman) that the company wants to cut back on expenses by implementing the ideas of newbie Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), Ryan argues that Natalie has no clue on how he conducts his firings. Forced to take Natalie under his wing, Ryan starts to share his philosophies with her while seeing how he’s essentially become devoid of emotion. Ryan also begins to have feelings for Alex (Vera Farmiga) someone he was just supposed to have a harmless fling with, and is forced to return to his family to see his younger sister get married.

I only heard the Oscar buzz surrounding Up in the Air late last year but I really had no idea what it was about. I’ve been a fan of Clooney’s work, but I didn’t really feel a need to see every film he’s ever starred in. Truth be told, the first time that I tried watching this movie, I basically fell asleep through the first 40 minutes. However, when I gave it another shot, I found it to be extremely intelligent, engaging, and pretty moving. Director Jason Reitman adapted the film from Walter Kirn’s novel of the same name together with Sheldon Turner and it’s a movie that’s heavy on the dialogue. In this case, lots of dialogue is a very good thing as it basically brings us straight into the head of Clooney’s Bingham.

Vera Farmiga is great as Alex especially when she tells Ryan to think of her as “you with a vagina”. She manages to charm the charmer in Ryan while also tending to the bruised ego that Natalie has in the middle of the movie. She also hides an unexpected secret that caught me completely by surprise. Anna Kendrick is also fantastic as the ambitious Natalie, someone who gave up her own dreams to follow a boy. Their interaction, particularly when Natalie talks about what she thought she’d be at a certain age in contrast to what she perceives Alex to be, was a winner to say the least.

Still, make no mistake that this is Clooney’s movie through and through. I had gotten to the point where I began to think of Clooney as little more than just a pretty face. Graying at the temples and running around with hot supermodels/actresses, but still capitalizing only on his looks. Up in the Air reminds us that the man is still an actor. He’s still the charming rogue that he perfected in the Ocean’s series of films, but there’s actual vulnerability here. You see it when he tries to reconnect with his sisters, when he tries to talk to his future brother-in-law, when he comes to a realization in the middle of an important speech, and especially when he comes face-to-face with Alex’s secret. Clooney actually made me care about his character, and for that he and Reitman deserve tons of credit.

Smart films too often go unnoticed or worse, go over our heads, in favor of Hollywood’s blockbusters. I am pleased to say that I gave Up in the Air another shot after dismissing it as “too talky” the first time around. It turned out to be one of very few films that had me thinking and marveling at its brilliance once I completed it.