Up in the Air Review [2]

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 12.20.2009

George Clooney delivers one of the year's best acting performances but is it enough?

Directed by Jason Reitman
Written by Jasn Reitman, Sheldon Turnerbased on the novel by Walter Kim

Cast
George Clooney ... Ryan Bingham
Vera Farmiga ... Alex Goran
Anna Kendrick ... Natalie Keener
Jason Bateman ... Craig Gregory
Amy Morton ... Kara Bingham
Melanie Lynskey ... Julie Bingham
J.K. Simmons ... Bob
Sam Elliott ... Maynard Finch
Danny McBride ... Jim Miller
Zach Galifianakis ... Steve




Rated R for language and some sexual content


There is a point in Up in the Air where George Clooney’s “career transition counselor” Bingham sits down with his sister’s fiancé to talk him through a case of cold feet on their wedding day. The fiancé, Jim, explains to Bingham that while laying in bed, he saw the wedding, the house, the joint bills, the kids, the football games, the graduation, the grandkids, the eventual death and wondered if any of it was worth it. Bingham simply agrees with this sentiment until being shaken out of the situation by his other sister and calmly explains that Jim never felt this way unless he was alone and maybe it is better to have a co-pilot.

What this scene shows is there are two different types of people represented in this film. Bingham is a man who travels the country, firing people from companies whose bosses were “too chicken shit” to do it themselves. Along the way he prides himself on being member of a number of clubs, meaning no waiting in lines at airports, hotels and car rental kiosks. His version of success is completely materialistic. This is not made any clearer than when he sits in a hotel bar and compares membership cards with a fellow traveler.

Director Jason Reitman adapted the film from the novel by writer Walter Kirn, based on conversations he had with a man who claims to have an apartment in Atlanta he never stays in, living out of a storage locker instead. Bingham’s apartment is in Omaha, Nebraska and is empty save a bed. He calls the short time he stays there the most miserable moments of his life and thrives on airplanes and hotels and never slowing down.

Bingham is the character we are asked to follow and is the one least likely to garner sympathy. There is a danger Bingham can be an entirely unlikable character and it is all due to George Clooney’s performance we can relate to this man at all. He travels from city to city, firing people in one of the country’s worst economic crises since the Depression. There are a number of recognizable faces that only show up to be fired from Zack Galifianakis to J.K. Simmons. These name actors are joined by actual real working class individuals hired to be fired by Bingham and then asked to improvise their responses. These are people who have been victim to the corporate downsizing that threatens to destroy the lives of the people who helped build the companies to begin with. The movie is a hard sell thanks to this tricky plot point.

Up in the Air is Reitman’s third feature film and every film has asked us to follow a person doing something against the norm of the “average man” society. In Thank You For Smoking, Nick Naylor is a public relations spokesman for Big Tobacco who travels the country arguing that smoking is “not so bad.” He is faced with the scrutiny of everyone from special interest groups, the government and eventually the Marlboro Man himself. Juno presents us with a pregnant high school student who agrees to have her baby so an infertile couple can adopt it. It is a hard pill to swallow to think a high school kid can make these adult decisions but Reitman presents it in a manner that makes us believe.

Bingham is up there with Nick Naylor as someone who is hard to relate to as a viewer. He has perfected his routine as a counselor. He describes his job to one character as showing the newly unemployed a light at the end. He helps them start paddling to the light, only to push them overboard and make them swim the rest of the way on their own. It is almost ridiculous in its absurdity that he is also a self help speaker whose message is to give up all your possessions and eliminate all your loved ones so they don’t weigh you down on your way through life. Unlike Nick Naylor, who has a son that helps him discover his hypocrisy, Bingham is never shown to be a hypocrite or a bad person. He is just Bingham and that is the message of this movie.

Reitman contrasts Bingham with a number of people: a fellow road warrior named Alex (Vera Farmiga), a young upstart in his own business named Natalie (Anna Kendrick) and Bingham’s own family back home. Alex is almost a carbon copy of Bingham, collecting memberships and hotel key cards and rarely ever looking back. I say almost because Alex is also very different from Bingham, a man who is comfortable with his current life and doesn’t pretend to be anything he is not.

The more complicated character, and the one that brings home the desolation and loneliness of Bingham, is Natalie. Her character is brought in when she devises a plan to fire people via teleconferencing. It is one more step to making one of the hardest and most ruthless jobs in the world even harsher. Out of all the actors in the film, it is Anna Kendrick who impresses me the most. Bingham’s only goal in life seems to reach the elusive 10 million frequent flier mark (only the seventh person to ever do so). Natalie only chose to go to Omaha because she followed her boyfriend. She has hopes and dreams and it is clear from the start this life is not for her.

When Bingham is with his family at his sister’s wedding, you can really see the differences. Bingham is perfectly happy to travel the country, nothing holding him back. It may seem strange to be content with no ties to anything but the movie shows us it is ok for this character. Just because his sisters have chosen the domesticated life doesn’t mean it is for everyone and that is the overall moral of this movie.

The problem with the movie is this is a film full of great writing and even better performances, yet the story is slight and lacks the depth needed to be considered a great film. It lacks the brilliance of a Juno and the message of a Thank You for Smoking. It is a great movie to look at and both Clooney and Kendrick deliver fantastic performances. The script’s snappy dialogue gives these great actors a lot to chew on. However, by the end of the film I sat there and wondered what the point was. Clooney has done cool before in movies like Out of Sight, a film delivering the same level of sophistication as this one while remaining a movie I can discuss over ten years later. Up in the Air seems like a movie no one will remember one year from now, performances notwithstanding.

The 411: Jason Reitman continues to prove he is one of the best young Indy directors working today. Up in the Air is his third feature and, on a directorial level, makes him three-for-three. The acting is amazing, with both George Clooney and Anna Kendrick delivering Oscar worthy performances. This might be Clooney’s best work to date and I will be shocked if his name is not included when the Oscar nominees are released. The problems lie in the script. The movie comes across as a slice of life and when it ends, nothing has changed. Bingham is a catalyst for those around him but the story does not seem be worth the time to tell. It is lucky the movie looks so good and the performances are so amazing because that alone makes it an easy recommendation.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]