December 8, 2009: Up in the Air
Jason Reitman has taken the film world by storm, and increases his profile every time he sits in the director’s chair. His feature debut, Thank You for Smoking (2005), was an honest shakeup for contemporary satirical comedy. His follow-up, Juno, was an Oscar darling a couple of years ago, eventually winning Best Original Screenplay for Diablo Cody. Now we have Up in the Air, a George Clooney star vehicle with deep veins of both comedy and drama, a story which is timely in these current days of recession and job losses, and again showing very strong Oscar potential. Jason’s father, Ghostbusters (1984) director Ivan Reitman, is understandably proud.
Up in the Air brings us Clooney as a man who lives in the skies of America, flying from city to city as a corporate hatchet man brought in to fire large numbers of employees for bosses too weak-willed to fulfill their responsibilities. Clooney loves his life on the road, having the minute details of airports and hotels and rental cars down to a science, and it’s just as well since his company’s home base, and where he nominally “lives”, is in Omaha, Nebraska. He is mostly estranged from his family, but is considering attending the wedding of one of his sisters. He also delivers occasional motivational seminars in which he encourages people to divest themselves of their possessions and keep moving in life, and hints at doing the same with personal relationships.
Of course, in the two hours we spend with this character, life-changing events will happen which make him question the entire foundation of how he lives. The only real complaint I have with this otherwise brilliant film is that I couldn’t escape the knowledge that I was watching a movie and seeing unnaturally quick character transformations, but I can forgive Up in the Air for experiencing the limitations of the format, and at least it tries to make the change believable.
So, what makes Clooney start to question this marvellous life he has created for himself? Well, as I implied above, he meets a woman, another experienced business traveller who is similarly interested in no-strings-attached trysts whenever and wherever they can hook up. The only problem is, he starts to like her more than just superficially and considers her as a potential mate. Also, his company starts to experiment with firing people through videoconferencing which would make his expensive travelling job obsolete, so he resists this but ultimately realizes he doesn’t have the power to stop it. Finally, he does decide to go to his sister’s wedding and is even enlisted to talk down the groom from some serious cold feet, and comes to realize that there is real truth to what be thinks are empty claims that companionship makes life more enjoyable. As previously pointed out, it’s not typical for people to change so quickly, but this perfect storm of stimuli in a short time period does ring true.
We’ve got great supporting performances here, with Jason Bateman as Clooney’s slimy boss, Vera Farmiga as Clooney’s on-the-road love interest, and Anna Kendrick as a recent college graduate who is forced to compare her brainchild, the new online firing technique, against the real thing during an extended road trip with Clooney to see what it’s actually like face-to-face. All of them help to emphasize the main thrust of the film, which is to question what is the point of life, and what people are trying to get out of it. Up in the Air is one of the best of the year – believe the critics on this one.
Funny, poignant and makes you think.
Post a Comment