Up in the Air

Up in the Air is a film about many things, but chiefly about insincerity and its all-encompassing power. Most reviews have highlighted how this film is about tapping into the current economic situations in this country, or about how the story is really telling us about how George Clooney needs to settle down unless he wants to turn into a loser, or about how relationships are the most important thing in the world. And Up in the Air, which stands as director Jason Reitman's best film yet, is about each and every one of those things, and in very unsubtle terms. But it is most importantly about how the world of business is filled with insincerity and false realism, and how the people who populate that world are meant to sit back and take it as it comes without batting an eyelash.

Based on the novel by Walter Kirn, but only in its main character and concept, Up in the Air introduces us to one of the many business-level travelers who spends his time in an airplane, a hotel, or the bars thereabout. This traveler is Ryan Bingham, a man whose job requires him to always fly around the country; in the past year, he narrates, he spent only 43 days at the apartment he considers home, only in that it's where he gets his mail. Ryan is also a unique man in that he enjoys air travel. Although most people are seeing Up in the Air just after the botched terrorist attack on an airliner headed for Detroit, the familiarity with hating airline travel and all it represents is fresh in our minds, so Ryan's enjoyment and awareness of how to diminish his waiting time just compounds how focused he is in his life.

But, asks this movie, what kind of life does Ryan live? Is his life worth living as it is? Shouldn't he want something else aside from gold cards, corporate airline clubs, flings with pretty women that never go anywhere? Ryan finds these questions in the form of Natalie Keener. What Ryan does seems difficult and almost pointless: he fires people. Ryan works for a company that fires people from other companies, when those companies are too weak-willed to do so. Ryan is sent around the country to fire people, but Natalie, a 23-year old Cornell graduate represents the end of his life up in the air. Natalie has created a program wherein people would be fired over teleconference, not in person. Though this program would save Career Transitions Corporation a lot of money, it would ground Ryan permanently. Not only that, but Ryan firmly believes in the personal touch, even when doing something so terrible, so life-altering, so definitive.

Ryan manages to sway his boss, Craig, to at least get a reprieve. Ryan is tasked with taking Natalie with him on the road for a trip to a few cities, to at least show her how to do what he does. Natalie, though a believer in the power of binding relationships, believes that the best way to fire people is to be impersonal, something that is sure to blow up in her face. While Ryan deals with Natalie, he meets a businesswoman who changes his perspective on what it means to be alone. Alex describes herself as Ryan with a vagina, at least in that they're so often flying, are in love with elite status, and are both filled with enough lust to spend darkened nights in nice hotel rooms. But, as their conversations take off and as Ryan learns more about himself and what he may want out of his life, Ryan wonders if Alex might be the woman to change him.

To say that George Clooney is as frequently great an actor as he is a glitzy movie star would be, I think, a bit of a falsehood. I like Clooney in his films, even those that are a bit overrated (Michael Clayton is the top example), but I've rarely thought of him as an entertaining or exciting actor. Up in the Air is one film that proves his chops as an actor are well-earned. Not only is this Reitman's best work, but it's Clooney's best work also. Though the third act of the movie requires Clooney to mostly separate from the main female characters, the range of emotions he has to run through in the final 40 minutes, and the relative ease and believability with which he pulls it off, is stunning. His work here, especially in the final 15 minutes, is his best yet.

With very few exceptions, the entirety of Up in the Air is next to perfect. Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, as Alex and Natalie, respectively, are both phenomenal, breathing life into two fully realized characters. Though a late twist may throw some people off about one of these women, it's worth noting that, at no point in the film are we privy to any other point of view than Ryan's. We only assume things are the way they are because Ryan assumes them to be so. That doesn't make them fact. Anyhow, Farmiga and Kendrick, especially, are great here and deserving of the praise. In fact, my only quibble is with the score, composed by Rolfe Kent. Though it's mostly appropriate and not at all intrusive, there's an early scene introducing Ryan's theory of life, represented by a backpack, that is underscored by a wrongheaded, jokey tune; the scene becomes distracting instead of compelling.

That said, Reitman has become more assured here than in Thank You For Smoking or Juno, two films that dealt heavily with stylishness than believable characters; with regards to the latter film, I loved it when it came out, but upon repeat viewings, the dialogue and characters become so dated that it's off-putting. His fluid control of the visuals, the crisp editing and cinematography, and tight script are all evidence of a filmmaker coming into his prime. Up in the Air has been heavily buzzed about for Oscars, and it's not hard to see why. The topic is something most people can relate to (and Reitman's usage of real people who lost their jobs to play the people losing their jobs is the smartest choice of all), the film is filled with Oscar-bait actors, and the finale manages to be ambiguous enough to not make people leave in downbeat fashion. But its points about how sincerity is key in life, about how life is key with company, and about how a man cannot be by himself to be satisfied are most important, more than superficial gold.