Up In The Air
Jason Reitman | USA | 2009
109 min

Up in the Air finds Clooney as a “career transition specialist”. His work requires him to travel frequently, feeling little remorse in letting go of people earmarked for downsizing by companies too afraid to handle them personally, because of the mess. Welcome to another view of the modern world by way of director Jason Reitman, him of Juno and Thank You for Smoking fame.

Reitman has made his own formula now predictable — his films are about jerks with a heart (this includes little Juno). The ultra confident characters always mask insecurities beneath their smugness. Clooney’s narcissistic Ryan Bingham is no different. As a road warrior who has shunned family, relationships and the need to settle down, Bingham finds comfort in the morose, artificial surroundings of airports and hotel rooms. Here is the kind of character Fight Club satirized but Reitnam reveres. The film pairs him with Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick, excellent in her sincere vulnerability), a spunky, wet-behind-the-ears new recruit at his company who he is assigned to show the ropes to. Natalie has an idea that could save their company precious thousands: the use of technology and new media to sacking people remotely. This makes Ryan uneasy and briefly, at least, presents a threat.

Like a hitmen road trip film (think Grosse Pointe Blank, The Matador et al), Ryan and Natalie’s travels en route to their firing routine become a symbolic journey of self-discovery through the American heartland. Natalie becomes more cynical while Ryan sobers up to the joys of companionship when he meets his female equivalent in Alex (spunky Vera Farmiga), a fellow frequent traveller who also racks up the air miles. While the films message is old, its presentation is fresh and amusing. Aiding it is the considerable charm of Clooney, whose scenes of witty, quick banter with both Alex and Natalie (the three end up together during a trip) are the films highlight.

Up in the Air suffers, as every Reitman film has in the past, by trying to be both wildly comical and seriously dramatic. Bookended by scenes of actual victims of recessionary retrenchment, who play minor characters in the film (alongside some recognizable faces), it chooses to tread the familiar rom-com route exploring relationships rather than the reality it projects itself from. The film has been called timely and relevant given the present economic state of the world, but those would be misleading adjectives for what is essentially a glum date flick, though not without its merits. Even when the film seems like it might delve into genre conventions (Clooney racing through the airport to meet his lover) the cynical script elevates it with surprises that you may not see coming. Certainly the year’s most depressingly hopeful film, if not necessarily the best.