Up In The Air: Movie Review

Up In The Air: Movie Review

Rating: 7/10
Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Melanie Lynskey
Director: Jason Reitman
A movie about a guy who fires people for a living may not be the one film many of us want to see right now as we continue to wobble through recessionary times.
Yet with Golden Globe nominations coming out of its ears and Oscar buzz aplenty, Up In The Air finally opens in NZ cinemas.
It stars George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a corporate gun for hire who is called in when the bosses are too cowardly to cut loose their staff. Bingham spends 100% of his life in the air and on the way to one sacking after another - and he's happy with it his non-committal lifestyle, living out of a suitcase and out of emotional harm's way.
So when his boss (Jason Bateman) brings in Natalie Keener (Twilight's Anna Kendrick), he's appalled to discover her solution is to ground the staff who do the sacking and get them to do it via webcams.
However, Ryan becomes determined to show her a little something about life and takes her across America so she can see how it's done - and how he does it differently.
Up In The Air wears its heart on its sleeve - if you're fairly film savvy, you may see some of the twists coming; however, even if you're a film cynic, there is still plenty to enjoy with the snappy dialogue and smart humour.
Clooney does what he always does - he's suave and charming as a lovable emotional rogue. But while there's plenty of irony on display in this film (The man who does the firing faces life in the gun) there's also a little bit of predictability as well - that said, Reitman does a good job of using that to his advantage and peppers the script with some very funny one liners.
Whether you buy Clooney's change of heart (the film's tagline - Meet a man looking to make a connection should give it away) is the crux of this film; but there are a couple of scenes which seem at odds to his character - he's pulled into a family drama as a sister (Melanie Lynskey) gets married but his actions there seem directly opposed to what we've come to know about him. In effect, he becomes the cliché and appears to turn his back on his way of life.
Up In The Air has an easy going charm and some great performances from all involved. Thanks to the work of Clooney, Kendrick and Farmiga, you may end up caring about these characters a lot more than you would have expected to - and then again, you may actually get a bit more infuriated with them than you should.

But Up In The Air remains Clooney's film - he's rarely been more magnetic and appealing than in this everyman role - his charm and swagger will probably add more fuel to the Oscar fire that's already burning.