Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga & Anna Kendrick
A very charming comedy/drama with winning performances by Clooney and Kendrick that makes some savvy comments upon the value of human connections.
Following on from his last film, the Oscar nominated Juno which showed clear improvement over his debut film Thank You for Smoking, Jason Reitman’s latest film, Up in the Air, shows further improvement over Juno with another sharp script, added maturity over the teenage cool of Juno, and several strong performances from it’s cast including another winning performance by George Clooney. Up in the Air proves to be Reitman’s best film to date.
Ryan Bingham (Clooney) fires people for a living. His firm is hired out by corporations and small businesses looking to downsize their staff but lack the courage to give their staff the news themselves. Bingham, a man with charm and who loves the lifestyle of being on the road, travelling across the country and enjoying first class services along the way, is good enough at his job to convince most of those he’s brought in to fire that this is, in fact, a positive change in their lives. When his boss reveals a new method of firing people over video calls, pioneered by up-and-comer Natalie Keener (Kendrick), Bingham sees his jet-setting life on the road threatened with life in an office and the baggage of then living in one place, owning a home and settling down. Bingham then gets to take Keener o the road with him as he justifies the need for more personal interaction with the people they fire while also wondering whether a casual relationship with another jet-setter called Alex (Farmiga) might have something worth pursuing further.
Maintaining a tone that is both light, yet mature when necessary, Up in the Air is a charming yet also grounding film. Much of the charm comes, no doubt, from the efforts of Clooney who brings his usual charisma to the role of Ryan Bingham and whose delivery, whether telling someone they’re losing their job or addressing a conference room full of Bingham-wannabies, manages to make what he is selling incredibly believable whether it be that losing your job is a positive change or that a life on the road without permanent relationships with anyone is a life worth living. It is more this latter point, a lifestyle on the move, that Bingham believes in personally and the challenges to which that lead to the film’s more dramatic moments and most mature insights. Faced with the prospect of having his jet-setting job replaced with a job in an office cubicle, realising his loose connection to his family has left him excluded from events he thought he’d be included in and finally meeting someone on the road who might just offer him something more than the usual casual fling he has been accustomed too, Bingham must re-evaluate his ideals of life being better without the ties of home or family. The film pushes the importance of human connection but not done so in an overly forced way with some events occurring as you could predict and other turns managing to surprise the audience as much as they do the confident Bingham.
Clooney delivers a very enjoyable performance as Bingham. While perhaps not quite as deserving of the award recognition it is getting (Clooney’s performance as a similar corporate fix-it man in Michael Clayton held much more dramatic weight), it is still thoroughly charming with Clooney also capable of showing the cracks beneath Bingham’s confident and charming demeanour, and perhaps underneath Clooney’s own. Farmiga is good as Alex, who describes herself as Bingham “but with a vagina”. Initially likeable like Clooney’s Bingham, Farmiga is able to hide a more cut-throat personality that lies beneath well and manages to hold her own, much like her character, with Clooney. More enjoyable though is Anna Kendrick as the young, somewhat naïve, up-and-comer Natalie. Bubbly and attempting to appear more confident than she really is, her self-assured certainty over what she wants in life partnered with the naivety from her lack of field experience makes her induction into the world of Bingham one that is at times funny and others emotional but always sympathetic and likeable.
Overall, Up in the Air is a very enjoyable film. Serious when necessary with lessons to give, but done so without overdoing it, the film is also very charming and funny and filled with likeable performances especially from Clooney and Kendrick. It can sometimes be a little too cute for it’s own good but it seems impossible to dislike or to come away without reflecting upon your own life choices.
Rating: 4/5
