"The stars will wheel forth from their daytime hiding places; and one of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over."
Up in the Air is a movie about Ryan Bingham (played by George Cloonery), whose job consists of travelling all around America firing people. He's on the road almost 300 days every year which means that airports, planes and hotels have become a part of his daily routine, and they're basically the closest thing to a home that he has. Ryan enjoys this lifestyle immensely, because he doesn't believe in things like having children, getting married, settling down and bonding too much with other people. When his company eventually decides to modernise their business and plan to begin firing people using video conversations over the Internet instead of face to face, our main character's only passion is threatened to be taken from him, which causes him to reconsider the choices he's made in his life. As he sets out on his final business trip, Ryan is joined by Natalie Keener (played by Anna Kendrick), the young hotshot who came up with the video conversation idea. These two character's radically different ideas and philosophies of life, and more importantly how they clash and lay the foundation for some very interesting conversations, are the main themes of this movie.
I went on IMDb to check out Up in the Air Air before I got a chance to see it, and it's description reminded me a lot of Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, one of my favourite movies of all time. This automatically raised the bar for this movie extremely high, and sure enough, they do have a lot of things in common, but there's at least just as many things that are unique to each movie. One of the things they have in common is the way they deal with themes like loneliness and the purpose of life, and even though Up in the Airnever really gets close to being as spellbinding and emotionally affecting as Lost In Translation is, it's still a very good movie that kept me interested from start to finish. George Clooney's character Ryan Bingham and his way of living is the most important thing in this film, mainly because of the way it changes as the story goes on, and because of what this means to the over all theme and message of the film.
To begin with, Ryan enjoys being alone and on the move all the time, never staying in one place for more than a few days. When he gets introduced to Kendric's character and strikes up a casual relationship with Alex Goran (played by Vera Farminga) however, the conversations and banter between the three of them begin to affect Ryan more than he'd like to admit. All three characters have different ways of approaching life and things like partnership, family, age and dreams, and the interaction between the three of them is one of this movie's most important elements. Seeing as this is the case, Up in the Air is a dialogue driven movie in every sense of the word, which means that it relies heavily Clooney's, Farminga's and Kendrick's abilities to deliver their lines and connect with each other in a believable and professional manner. Luckily all three actors are on the top of their game in this movie (all of them earned oscar nominations for their performances), and to me, the above average chemistry that these three actors share in this movie is it's strongest selling point by far.
One of the things I noted very early on when watching Up in the Air, is the fact that it's filmed and edited in a way that you normally wouldn't see in a Hollywood film. Sometimes it seems as though the camera is being hand held, an element that served to make the movie seem more realistic and authentic, and the way all the people that Clooney has fired talk to the camera as if they're being interviewed is quite remarkable because it emphasises the "realistic documentary feel" of the movie. As a result of this, the occurrences in this movie are strangely relatable and therefore much more believable than they otherwise would have been.
Realistic editing and great acting aside, the most important part of this movie, by far, is the different human emotions and choices that Clooney's character struggle to understand and deal with. I feel like the director's main objective when creating this movie was to make the viewer think about things like trust, love, happiness and family, and to make you reevaluate whether or not you're doing what makes you and the people around you happy. Ryan Bingham has several revelations throughout the movie that I think almost everyone who watches the movie somehow can relate to, and it's kinda remarkable to me how precisely this movie dealt with a lot of the same things that I put a lot of thought into myself. This is probably exactly what Up in the Airs director Jason Reitman had in mind when creating the movie, and I applaud him for creating a picture that isn't as much a tool to make money as it is an attempt at telling a story that'll make the audience think about their lives and the choices they've made. This element is another one of those things I believe Lost In Translation and Up in the Air has in common.
Whilst watching this movie, I was pleasantly surprised at how funny it actually is. Particularly Anna Kendrick's character cracked me up several times, and it was nice to see that the movie wasn't too proud of itself to incorporate some humour into the script, which honestly would have been a little boring otherwise. The writers found a great balance between the serious and the comedic dialogue, which ultimately made the movie more enjoyable that it would have been if one of the two elements would have been dominant over the other. That being said, the movie did loose me a couple of times, especially when it drifted more towards being a romantic comedy than a drama with comedic and romantic elements. When everything is said and done though, Up in the Air is a sweet, clever, funny and though provoking movie that I enjoyed watching, mainly because of the acting, the writing and the directing. You shouldn't expect anything mind blowing and emotionally extraordinary from Up in the Air, but it is a good time nonetheless, good enough to have earned my seal of approval. (4/6)
Up in the Air IMDb page here
Up in the Air trailer here
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