Up in the Air: Two Lives Passing Like Airplanes in the Dark

I don’t go out to see a lot of movies. I mean, I watch a lot of movies, but I don’t actually shell out eleven dollars (excluding snacks) very often. I made an exception for Up in the Air. Admittedly, I went into it with a fair amount of bias – I am a big fan of the Jasons. Reitman and Bateman, respectively, impressed me together in Juno and separately in Thank you for Smoking and TV’s Arrested Development before that. I had high hopes for, if not necessarily the material itself (I entered the theater with only an inkling of what the movie was about and armed with my girlfriend’s helpful fact that one of the actresses was in Twilight), at least the cast and crew assembled for the task. Up in the Air is an unsentimental look at a modern man and the choices that he has made. Ryan Bingham, played with classy, understated levity by the inimitable George Clooney, is a man who lives in first-class seats, frequent-flyer lounges and an endless succession of preferred-customer suites. He meets his female counterpart in Vera Farminga’s effortlessly sexy Alex, another jet-setter who bonds with Ryan while comparing executive status levels for various hotel chains and airlines. “Just think of me as you, but with a vagina,” she tells him in one of Reitman’s trademark quips. In a particularly well-done scene, the two compare their travel-crammed schedules to locate a city in which they can hook up next. The arrangement suits Ryan, who heartily embraces a lifestyle that most would find uncomfortable at best and downright untenable at worst. He’s a termination specialist, a downsizer who lays off employees so their bosses don’t have to. He rides into each city on his steel-winged steed and lays waste to dozens of careers. He is Unemployment, the first horseman of the economic apocalypse. His greatest aspiration in life is to reach the executive status of ten millions American Airline miles, an honor which he would be only the seventh person to achieve. “More people have walked on the moon,” he observes. He even does motivational speaking on the side, gives speeches to the very people he’ll likely fire later, preaches the benefits of traveling light, metaphorically and literally, by avoiding becoming weighed down by possessions and relationships. As you might guess, the plot endeavors to make Ryan rethink his lifestyle choices. First, headstrong go-getter Natalie Keener threatens to permanently ground Ryan by creating a web-conference system to fire undesirables remotely. As her own life plans unravel in a series of semi-comedic episodes played perfectly by Anna Kendrick, Ryan’s perfect, travel-sized world begins to become uncomfortably crowded. Further events conspire, one after the other, and nearly threaten to send the movie veering off into sentimentality. Director Jason Reitman, however, keeps a steady hand on the yoke and proves his rapidly increasing strength as a director with a keen ability to find humanity in the least likeable of corporate shills. Father Ivan must be proud. Up in the Airhas much more in common with Thank you for Smoking than Juno, including terribly witty but not overtly hip dialogue (my only real complaint with Juno) and impeccable casting. I don’t think there’s a director currently working with a better eye for matching actors to roles. Clooney’s easy confidence perfectly suits Ryan’s job – who wouldn’t want to be fired by George Clooney? Kendrick and Farminga are wonderful as the only two women in his life. Jason Bateman is, as always, delightfully smug as Ryan’s no-nonsense boss, and I maintain that, despite his recent, prominent roles, he is still the most under-utilized actor in Hollywood. Toss in a few fantastic cameos from the likes of Zach Galafianakis, J.K. Simmons and Sam motherfucking Elliott, and it would be difficult for this movie not to charm. More than that, Up in the Air soars on the strength of not just acting, but Reitman’s elegant streamlining of Walter Kim’s novel. The script keeps the heavier moments of the film aloft with snappy wit and breezy levity that makes light of timely subjects like empty offices in Detroit and the tearful protests of the real-life, non-actor firees Reitman employed for the downsizing scenes. It is a movie at once hilarious and heart-wrenching, as those of us who have recently felt the hard edge of the recession can see our own story writ large across the face of each employee Ryan effortlessly terminates. I have seen several reviewers refer to Ryan’s lifestyle and decisions as allegory, but I disagree. To me, Up in the Air is an intensely personal story; an impartial, realistic depiction of two lives passing like airplanes in the dark.

 

Up in the Air

 

Starring George Clooney, Vera Farminga, Anna Kendrick and Jason Bateman

 

Directed by Jason Reitman