Basic plot: A guy fires people for a living.
When I first heard the concept of Up in the Air, I was a little bit hesitant – bordering on disinterested. I love a good drama, but the thought of watching a movie about a guy that cuts people loose sounded a little too dark for my tastes – particularly given the current economy. Regardless, I knew I’d have to see it.
Director Jason Reitman has a great track record. First he gave us the dark comedy Thank You For Smoking and later had an even bigger taste of indie fame with the teen pregnancy flick Juno, which brought him his first Oscar nomination. Likewise, George Clooney has been in some pretty awesome movies, both serious and funny. It was easy to imagine their two styles meshing quite well, but it turns out that was an understatement.
George Clooney delivers the dry humor flawlessly and the slightly more colorful characters that surround him provide an excellent contrast. Jason Bateman works great as Clooney’s boss and Anna Kendrick proved that being in Twilight doesn’t automatically make you a shitty actress as she stepped up to try her hardest to steal the spotlight. Vera Farmiga hit her second home run for me this year as Clooney’s leading lady. After The Departed, Orphan, and this she’s definitely becoming an actress to follow.
Despite all the great performances, the star of the movie is the script. The balance between comedy and drama found in Up In the Air is just about perfect. To my own surprise, they found some very humorous moments to wrap around various firings of random employees throughout the movie though it takes a somber turn nearly as often. The real beauty of the film is watching Clooney’s character grow throughout without ever getting too predictable.
From the beginning, he seems to be the only character with a grasp on how monumental of an effect his job has on other people. He’s perfected the art of firing people with a hint of heart albeit completely constructed out of lies and both the scripts fantastic dialogue and Clooney’s performance sell every aspect of this lifestyle I could only imagine without a second thought. Watching this contradictory, relationship hating, life-loving old man learn about what makes life truly worth loving is fantastic.
The style of the editing is slick and the cinematography is modern and to-the-point. Nothing ever gets too fancy or artsy as you’re constantly presented with all the information you need in a format just clean enough to keep you interested visually. The lead character’s life on the go has a fascinating monotony to it as it displays a man who holds himself about the rest of society for not being “tied down” to anything, when the reality is that his life is just as practiced and scheduled as those he considers himself better than.
Up In the Air is one of the best movies of 2009, and seeing how most of my favorite movies are getting completely shafted for Oscar buzz (Away We Go, 500 Days of Summer), I’m probably going to be rooting for Up in the Air once the Academy Awards role around as if it was the Baltimore Ravens at the Super Bowl. I loved it and I’ll definitely be picking up the DVD.