Up in the Air
This is the third film for director Jason Reitman, a filmmaker who, in a very short amount of time, has shown remarkable skill in not only directing, but also writing and choosing his projects carefully. (His other credits include Thank You For Smoking, and 2007's Juno.) Here, he not only shows his talent for mixing humor with human drama, but also for creating unforgettable characters. The lead character in the story is Ryan Bingham, a man who fires people for a living, and literally lives out of his suitcase. He has an apartment, which is barely furnished, since he lives there less than a hundred days out of the year. Most of the time, his home is in the sky, as he flies from city to city, visiting various corporations and helping them deal with firing their employees when cut backs are needed. Ryan is comfortable in his life. He has no real human relationships, not even with his surviving family members back home. But, he is a charmer, is friendly and open to the various strangers who walk in and out of his life. "I'm not a hermit", he tells a co-worker. When he's not performing lay offs on behalf of faceless corporate bosses who hire him, he's a motivational speaker, teaching people how they can lighten the load in their "backpack of life", and live on only the vary bare essentials.
George Clooney plays Ryan, and it's a different kind of performance from what we usually see from him, especially from his more recent roles in films like The Men Who Stare at Goats and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. In those films, he had a certain larger than life quality to him, and even seemed to be taking a cue from some of his past performances. He has the usual suave confidence we see in his performances, but it's a little more subtle and down to earth here. He plays Ryan as a man who has his life so organized, he knows his way through every major airport and hotel chain. He's the man you want to be behind of if you're standing in a long line anywhere, as he always knows the best way to move through it as quickly as possible. Clooney helps us understand how Ryan could love the life he leads of hardly ever being home, and going from one airport and hotel to the next. For him, this life is all about control. When he's traveling, he's his own boss, knows all the ropes, and has nothing to tie him down. It's independence to him. It's a wonderful performance, to be sure, but it's certainly helped by two very strong female turns by Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.
They play the women who send Ryan's controlled and organized world into anarchy in different ways. Farmiga plays a fellow traveler of the skies, who not only seems to understand Ryan's world and way of thinking, but also emotionally bonds with him. She seems to be his perfect match in just about every way. ("Think of me as yourself, only with a vagina", she tells him.) They meet in a bar, compare travel tips and membership cards, and soon they're having regular sexual encounters whenever their travel paths cross. It's more than sexual for both, though. They have a genuine understanding and bond with one another. Before long, he's contemplating actually going to his sister's wedding in Wisconsin, since he might be able to show up with a date for once. As for Kendrick, she plays a rookie in Ryan's field of work named Natalie Keener. Ryan's boss (Jason Bateman) has implemented some of Natalie's ideas into the job that could cause trouble for his perfect world. Instead of sending their agents out to different companies to lay off employees, Natalie suggests they use teleconference technology so that they can lay off workers without actually being there. Ryan takes Natalie on the road with him, hoping to show her the error of her ways.
How the two storylines converge, I will not reveal. Part of what makes Up in the Air a wonderful experience is how we're never entirely sure how things will turn out, or where the characters will end up. This is a razor sharp, bittersweet film that's surprisingly complex underneath its simple exterior. The movie is about how the different main characters view the world, and the dreams they hold. For Ryan, happiness is having as little bonds to the world as possible. Natalie is a young dreamer. She has a boyfriend, wants the American Dream that most people her age want, and is a lot more optimistic. Hearing these two characters talk about their different views on life is not only fascinating, but very honest and real. We don't feel like we're listening to scripted dialogue. They talk like they're having an honest conversation you might overhear between a man and a woman at the stage of life the characters are. There's not a single false moment in the performance, or the dialogue. Anna Kendrick shows a real charisma here as the young and idealistic Natalie. She's a real find here, and I'm sure this performance will help her find work beyond the Twilight film franchise, for which she is currently best known.
Like a lot of great films, this is not really a movie you can catagorize. At times, it seems that it wants to be a romantic comedy about a man who learns how to open his heart and life to someone special, but the screenplay by Reitman and Shelton Turner does not let the story or the characters get pigeonholed into a certain genre. We think we know these people or have them figured out, and then it surprises us. This is especially true of the other main woman in Ryan's life. Vera Farmiga matches her performance to Clooney's so perfectly, that yes, we can actually see the attraction between the two characters. We even start to want them to find each other, and are happy for them when they start sharing more experiences outside of hotel rooms. Once again, I will not reveal where the characters end up, but it is a perfect note. The movie finds the perfect note not just for the characters, but for the ending itself. It feels right, and the characters are where they should be.
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