Up in the Air

Director Jason Reitman’s follow-up to Juno finds him in super fine form with this dramatic romantic comedy adapted from Walter Kirn’s 2001 novel of the same name. The film's three leading actors, George Clooney (Ryan Bingham), Vera Farmiga (Alex Goran), and Anna Kendrick (Natalie Keener), fire on all cylinders and make their performances look effortless, a tribute to them and their director.

The pitch-perfect screenplay is by Reitman and Sheldon Turner. Call it a social commentary of our corporate world (and time) and workers (perhaps your neighbor, if not you) that’s fast-paced, veering in its 107-minute running time between the sadness of the reality of the story (workers being laid off in big numbers) and the life of debonair Bingham who is often up in the air (in a plane) and above the fray (his head in the clouds in his own world). He’s got a nasty job but remains a likeable guy.

Plot: “Ryan Bingham is a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent-flyer miles and just after he’s met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams. Bingham’s job is to fire people from theirs. The anguish, hostility, and despair of his ‘clients’ has left him falsely compassionate, living out of a suitcase, and loving every second of it.

When his boss (Jason Bateman) hires arrogant young Natalie, she develops a method of video conferencing that will allow termination without ever leaving the office--essentially threatening the existence Ryan so cherishes. Determined to show the naïve girl the error of her logic, Ryan takes her on one of his cross-country firing expeditions, but as she starts to realize the disheartening realities of her new profession, he begins to see the downfall of his way of life.” (IMDB)

Clooney and Farmiga have terrific on-screen chemistry. Clooney and Kendrick have terrific emotional rapport as we watch each character learn from the other. And all three roles have been written and performed in a way to show an equal quality in cross-generational and cross-gender dealings. Both women are very strong characters, and always portrayed as equal to the man, a truly wonderful attribute of this film.

Many of the people fired by Bingham's character in the film are the real thing: workers who were fired from real jobs. Reitman placed ads in local newspapers claiming to be filming a documentary. These workers came in and had the chance to tell their own stories, on film, and to express their feelings at the moment of being fired.

Owen Gleiberman ended his review in Entertainment Weekly by saying: "Up in the Air is light and dark, hilarious and tragic, romantic and real. It’s everything that Hollywood has forgotten to do; we’re blessed that Jason Reitman has remembered.” And so it is and so we are.

                                             Jim Baldassare