Up in the Air (***½)

Directed by: Jason Reitman

Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmonds

Seen: January 29^th 2010

***½ Out of ****

Jason Reitman takes the success he had with his previous movie, Juno, and leapfrogs it in Up in the Air (not that Juno was in any way not great in itself…). George Clooney plays yet another character breaking anything resembling a type-cast stereotype mould for him, this time Ryan Bingham – a career transition counsellor, the guy your employers hire to fire you, apparently nowadays anything can be outsourced. Ryan flies all over America for his job, and subsequently he has become a familiar face at check-in desks for airlines and hotels. He is one of the best in his company, firing so many people that he has almost made an art of it.

The perks of the job are his bread and butter. The status of receiving an American Airlines concierge key; of never queuing; of getting all the loyalty offerings available; of becoming only the seventh person in history to reach 10 million frequent flyer miles with American Airlines. It has come to such a state in his life that he claims the things you probably don’t like about flying such as the artificial light and the recycled air are to him warm reminders of being home, and that he travelled 323 days in the previous year, which meant he had to spend 43 miserable days at home. A loner in other words; surrounded by people wherever he goes, but close to no-one.

This viewpoint starts “stretching” when he meets Alex (Farmiga), a woman close to his age who has similar travelling obligations. They are both attracted to the other’s status symbols (re concierge key cards and membership status’ and more). The two start a relationship of sorts where they plan trysts whenever they are in the same city. But then Ryan’s company makes a big announcement. They are going to change the way they operate, firing people online via webcam, the brilliant idea of a young graduate newly joining the company – which will cut the company’s inflated travel budget by 85%. In an effort to disprove her strategy, Bingham takes her along on a trip to several companies who have hired them for the firing, one last opportunity to try and keep the job he has; exactly like it is. On the road Natalie (Kendrick) learns a lot of things from Ryan, as does Ryan from Natalie, but in a more “remember-this-from-years-long-gone” way. Natalie plants a seed of longing for something more than an empty existence in Ryan’s head, and this, joined with his growing feelings for Alex, slowly but incontrovertibly starts influencing Ryan.

Up in the Air is a fantastic movie that takes you behind the scenes of solitary living, not merely using it as a backdrop for a great story, but giving it an integral part. George Clooney is his usual brilliant self as the (very) independent Ryan Bingham, who has come to terms, completely, with the things he thought he wanted for his life and who slowly and very tentatively starts thinking about a possible change to it all. Now whether he actually makes that change is another thing altogether, and I’ll leave that for you to decide/see. Vera Farmiga is similarly great as the deceptively sultry temptress Ryan falls for, and Anna Kendrick is refreshing as the young corporate employee who sees that the world is not all moonshine and roses as she learns about the hardships in the world and goes through some herself too. The three actually make a corporate family of sorts at one stage, and this is also one of the best scenes in the movie – the two “parent” figures rationalising their lives (among other things) to try and console “their heartbroken daughter”.

The current economic climate caters for this movie as much as its story caters for anyone who will see it. I loved every minute of this movie, and anyone who’s ever been single/alone will find parts to identify with, whether either bits of comedy or the almost heartbreaking responses from those just fired, I know I did.