‘Up in the Air’: A Witty and Timely Modern-Day Film

Director: Jason Reitman
Running Time: 109 Minutes
Rated: R

This is a review, coming from the London Film Festival.  This film will be released on December 25th.

Every era, generation, and decade seems to have a film that is reflective of both the happenings and personalities of its time period whether it was intentionally or unintentionally done to be so.  These films seem to grasp the meaning of its period and literally create a time capsule around their plots and surprisingly, are not even meant to be documentaries.  Enter Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, his third feature film that focuses in on individual action and a societal question concerning connection.  Perhaps even more importantly, Reitman encapsulates the past decade into the span of less than two hours through a clever script and great acting troupe that not only touches upon the economic and globalized world citizens live in today but also a good, real story about individualism versus the need to be loved.

Up in the Air follows Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a corporate downsizing expert that literally is sent all around the nation to tell employees in various companies the bad news that they’re being laid off.  Additionally, he revels in travel without anything or anyone tying him down as he attempts to reach his dream of attaining the 10 million miles travel mark with American Airlines.  However, the situation changes when Natalie (Anna Kendrick) enters the company and introduces video conferencing as the wave of the future.  Not amused by the technology replacing his travels, Ryan takes Natalie on a training run of how the job is run, yet he gets more than he bargains for with dealing with a daughter-like figure and a new lover, Alex (Vera Farmiga) who he starts to fall in love with.

The shortcomings themselves are few and admittedly minuscule yet still noticeable in the overarching plot and characterizations.  The most obvious and perhaps debatable point is the plot’s weaker final act.  The film builds briskly with several plot points and actions coming at the audience succinctly.  However, a marriage scene begins to drag down the movie considerably and although its intention is clear, offsets the energy the movie was outputting and is severely noticeable due to this contrast from how the characters act to the general impact and revelations the act reveals.

The film is also bogged down here and there with some faulty, stereotypical characterizations both for characters and scenes that, again, jut out because when compared to the rest of the movie, feels forced and unnecessary.  Clichés like a club dance scene to the superficial nature of Natalie’s relationship feel like they could have been given more meat or simply glanced over as they do not provide much laughs or insight.

In comparison, though, Up in the Air really lives and breathes through its characters and smart plot.  First and foremost, the acting cast is a strong one from the supporting cast like Farmiga and Kendrick giving their female personalities unique backgrounds and performances with one being a masculine diva that plays like Bingham’s long-lost twin while the latter being a strong, forward thinker with a bit of naiveté.  However, Clooney does take most of the spotlight, and rightly so, with a fantastic performance as a narcissistic and outgoing traveler whose head is never quite on the ground.  He exudes a lot of charisma and personality yet brings a layer of uncertainty and sobriety that does coax out a performance full of little nuances, different from usually the cool and confident characters Clooney usually plays.

In addition, the script is full of wit and reality.  As mentioned before, this film is an indirect period piece of the recession and global traveler, motifs that are constant and pervasive as the film pushes forward.  From the opening montage of the sad faces and expressions of employees getting fired to the imagery of hundreds of computers with webcams lined up at Binhgam’s old workplace, it never forces the viewer to understand that the film itself is taking place here and now, but instead, there is a subtle realization that Up in the Air is a brilliant depiction of the present day and the effects they cause on each other concurrently.  On the other side is a very smart and personal story of a man with no people or commitments in his travel bag to being thrust with more and more of them as his journey progresses.  This is surrounded well with the main character being such a traveler and a motivational speaker, giving the film already some ironic and juicy material to work with.  There are a lot of smart and funny comments littered throughout that never feels out of place with the characters and the plot and delivering nicely crafted dialogue and scenes, until the final shot which perfectly summarizes the moment for Ryan Bingham and perhaps the current global audience.

This great personal story is complemented with a great eye for imagery and cinematography.  There are some gorgeous shots in the film that thematically and symbolically add to the central plot that again, focuses on the personal with the fired employees faces being front-and-center into the camera and the towering scene of the airport departure and arrival times looming against Bingham’s body in a high perspective shot.  It all adds up to a cohesive and well-presented package.

Up in the Air really is a reflection on the modern-day society and attacks it on many fronts to create another intriguing Reitman film about love, life, and happiness.  The greatest weakness is perhaps that the film’s last act starts to lose a bit of steam along with certain plot points, such as Natalie’s relationship, seeming more contrived than clever.  Yet this does little to bring down the marvelous performances of the cast, from Farmiga’s sexy yet masculine doppelganger acting to Clooney’s metamorphosis, to just the amount of themes the film touches upon from the advent of technology to the question of identity that the script never loses track of.  To top it off, there is some brilliant imagery to be had that not only is smartly framed but symbolically poignant.  Retiman should be commended for creating a period piece that will hopefully be remembered as being representative of the latter first decade of the 2000s not only because of its economic features but the reflection of the contemporary individual coping with life.

The Wie muses: **** out of *****

Ratings:
*****: Excellent
**** to ****½: Great
*** to ***½: Good
** to **½: Mediocre
* to *½: Bad
0 to ½: Terrible

Up in the Air Youtube Trailer

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