Thursday, December 31, 2009

Up in the Air






imdb link  Photos

Plot: This is a tragic satire about Ryan who lives his life avoiding commitment, avoiding empathy, and avoiding personal relationships. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) spends 325 days a year flying around the country and the world, and is only comfortable when he is away from home. He gives inspirational talks about being unattached to possessions and people. His job is firing people. In the movie, he teaches young Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) his job, and he meets Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) who is seemingly as unattached and afraid of commitment as he is. 

Review: This movie is a high concept satire of modern living. It shows people superficially connected, but actually very alone. Because it is so high concept, the characters in the movie don't really make sense as people. There is no 35-40 year old woman with Alex Goran's life situation at all -- period. The Alex of the beginning of the movie giving the sad advice to Natalie is not the same Alex as we meet at the end of the movie.

Ryan goes to his niece's wedding, and seems to have a meaningful experience, but then what?

The film gets points for ambition. The greatest image is Ryan (Clooney) alone in the hotel window at high. The film is really saying that people need the people they carry in their"back packs," to make life meaningful even though Ryan doesn't get it. I called Ryan soul-less; my wife asked me what I meant by that. This movie is an exploration of soul-lessness.

Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick

Crew: directed and co-written by Jason Reitman based on the novel by Walter Kim

Rating: 2.5 flasks


More: I have often said that no one makes a movie or book about what it is really like in the business world, and this is not it, but it does come close to addressing some of the issues of traveling a lot. Kim's novel is a lot more like the real business world. I might read it. 

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