Luke
stu-kicks
CibbuanoUp in the Air
January 17th 2010 21:30
Jason Reitman's followup to Juno is a more mature work comparable in some ways to the Paul Weitz film In Good Company, though thanks to the presence of George Clooney and Reitman's own growing stature as an indie-comedy auteur, Up in the Air has attracted a more sizeable critical buzz. The trailer sells this movie firmly as artsty Oscar-bait, but it's actually a bit more of a comedy, and a supreme work of irony that plays on the gap between our current iGeneration and the go-business-go generation of the 80s that came before us.
At the centre of Up in the Air is Ryan (Clooney), a highly motivated and slightly nihilistic individual who is outsourced to companies so he can fire their workers for them. He spends most of his time jetsetting around the U.S., a lifestyle that suits his commitment-free philosophy to a tee. However when he is recalled to home base he learns that the travelling aspect of his job is soon to be replaced by efficient and affordable webcam-like technology that will allow him to fire people all over America from the comfort of his own office. Ryan must face the daunting prospect of a stationary life, and finds himself travelling back out across the country one last time in order to help the significantly younger Natalie (Anna Kendrick) implement the technology that may eventually render him obsolete.
It's easy to overlook George Clooney's importance in regards to the success of this movie because he makes it all look so effortless. He isn't really an actor known for his range, but he kind of exists as a modern day version of Cary Grant, only armed with a genuinely hefty dose of credibility. Ryan is an honest, complex character that represents the surviving aspects of late 80s corporate culture - a self-sufficient, no-regrets self-styled life guru who lives in a vacuum so devoid of friends and family that he's dangerously close to being completely irrelevant should anything happen to threaten his job. Clooney's innate charm initially covers over the less sympathetic aspects of his character (he seems to see himself as a shark), allowing the viewer to align themselves with his POV so completely that they'll be as surprised as he is whenever someone challenges his way of life. Clooney sells what could've been a dull story just by being both completely believable and incredibly likeable. He reacts to the prospect of change in a way not entirely at odds with the attitudes of the people he fires, citing his wealth of experience as reason enough to resist new technologies. What Ryan doesn't realise though is that this change might just be the catalyst that allows him to become a participant in real life, ironically echoing the sales pitch he often pins on the upset workers he renders redundant.
On the surface, Up in the Air seems to be about generational differences - there's a rather effective scene where Ryan, Natalie and another character talk about each generation's hopes and what they're prepared to settle for, and the way that these things change as people get older. It sets up a few nice dichotomies that pop up again and again throughout the film - wisdom vs. intelligence, experience vs. radicalism, career vs. life - and Reitman is able to break through to the audience by not pushing any specific agenda in particular. At first the film seems to take a rather dim view of Natalie's generation - a world where people break up with one another via text message, and where it's evidently become acceptable to fire someone via webcam, but Natalie and Ryan have things to teach one another - how to live a life, and how to be emotionally self-sufficient, respectively.
And this isn't even the most fundamental message of the film... beyond this the movie ambitiously looks at some hard truths, engendered by the many minor characters reacting in a range of negative ways to the news that they've just been fired. The hardest truth at the centre of all this is the meaning of life itself, or (more correctly), the apparent lack of meaning. The second half of the film looks at Ryan's strained relationship with his sisters, awkward conversations weighed down by things unsaid and the emotional distance between them. It's a realistic and braver than usual look at the nature of contemporary western life than we're used to seeing from glossy, mainstream Hollywood. I'm guessing this aspect is largely to thank for the Oscar hype around this movie at the moment. I'm not going to say Up in the Air is the greatest movie ever, but it's a satisfying character study that's surprisingly easy to watch in spite of the dense subject matter and various themes bubbling along under and above the narrative. Inevitably, the message is that "Life's better with company", and whilst this could've been very schmaltzy it's handled in a way that doesn't cheat the audience or fall foul of Hollywood cliche.
HIGHLIGHTS: There's a great moment where Ryan overhears Natalie talking about him on the phone and she says, "No I don't even think of him that way, he's old" and his startled reaction is to look in the mirror next to him, as if he can't believe it. Clooney is so perfect in this one brief moment that you don't know whether to laugh at him or feel sorry for him.
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Comment by Faraaz
by the way, are you in Sydney? are you involved with anything to do with films by any chance?
Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
Why's that?
Comment by Faraaz
Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
what sort of movies would you like to make?
Comment by Faraaz
Btw are you on facebook?? communication there is a bit easier than orble blogs with all the ads lol
Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Up in the Air is still on my must see list, so once I see it can comment further. i will say I'm a Jason Reitman fan so there are expectations.