Up In The Air

Jason Reitman

The story: Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) flies around firing people for a living. He has been tasked with showing the ropes to young upstart Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), who wants to change the way things are done. On the personal front, he bonds with fellow frequent flyer Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) and decides to invite her to his sister’s wedding as his date.

I f there was an Oscar given out for casting, Up In The Air would definitely be a front-runner. The tricky thing here was to get the audience interested and invested in the story of a person who, frankly, is not very likeable.

After all, who better to paint as a villain in these still uncertain economic times than someone who fires people for a living?

Enter George my-middle-name-is-charming Clooney. The actor first came to attention as Dr Doug Ross on the hospital drama ER, which he starred in from 1994 to 1999. He left at the height of his popularity to take a stab at the big screen and to prove he was more than just a pretty face. He chose his roles carefully, alternating between commercial flicks such as romantic comedy One Fine Day (1996) with more challenging fare such as the war drama, Three Kings (1999).

Having honed his acting chops, he turns in a finely tuned performance here that makes you root for Ryan. The surface charm is still there and it draws one in. But beneath that is a touching portrait of a man who, as the tagline puts it, is ready to make a connection.

As a road warrior who spends over 300 days of the year away from home, Ryan is a man who has no meaningful relationships. Sure, he has the airport routine down pat and he has even distilled his outlook on life into a glib philosophy about the physical and emotional baggage people lug around.

But he is a stranger to his own family and the awkward moments at his sister’s wedding illustrate this.

Clooney, who picked up the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2006 for the political thriller Syriana, has received a nod for Best Actor for deftly underplaying this latest role.

As the enthusiastic reformer who soon realises she is not as tough as she thinks she is, Kendrick turns out to be adorably vulnerable while Farmiga brings a hard-edged sexiness to the role of the cynically practical Alex. They do a good job fleshing out the script which was co-written by Jason Reitman and based on the 2001 novel of the same name by Walter Kirn.

This is not the first time that the film-maker is tackling a prickly topic. He put the spotlight on spin in Thank You For Smoking (2005) and on teenage pregnancy in Juno (2007) and left an impression with his deliciously acerbic sense of humour.

Here, he raises questions about what a globalised and efficient economy means and the price it exacts and makes it relatable through Ryan’s story.

Pity, though, that he also dials down the caustic wit and Ryan gets an epiphany that life’s “better with company”. It seems rather pat but Reitman is too canny to traffic in sentimentalism, and Ryan comes to terms with who he is and what he does in a clear-eyed ending that keeps the film grounded in reality.

(ST)