Up In The Air
109mins, Director: Jason Reitman
Ryan Bingham, (George Clooney) is a ‘career transition counsellor’ who delights in his autonomous lifestyle flying around the world 322 days of the year and firing people.
Having already racked up millions of air miles, Ryan is most at ease in a clinical airport setting and delights in the plastic smiles of check-in clerks, prompted by their computers to say ‘pleasure to see you again Mr Bingham.’ He waltzes confidently from boardroom to boardroom, smoothly firing unsuspecting employees whose bosses haven’t got the nerve to do it themselves, before boarding the next plane to do the same all over again.
Between assignments in the corporate setting of a hotel lobby, Ryan encounters the smart and sassy Alex, (Vera Farmiga, The Departed). Sparks fly as they compare frequent flyer and privilege cards, leading to a no-strings attached affair based on coinciding airport layovers.
When his company hires Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), an ambitious and uptight graduate desperate to prove herself, her cost-cutting plan of firing people via a Webcam instead of in person threatens to leave Ryan grounded. Furious, he confronts his boss, which results in him going back on the road, to his horror with the young Natalie in tow, to show her how it is done.
The two women in Clooney’s life are never inferior to him in character nor in performance, and as Natalie’s presence in his travelling world certainly brings viewers plenty of comedy, it is his budding relationship with Alex that begins to challenge Ryan’s life philosophy that being unattached is best.
It is unclear what Reitman is trying to prove with Bingham’s character, but his portrayal of the high-flying lives that he and Alex lead is both clever and incisive. As films go, it certainly won’t change your life, but this is Clooney at his Danny Ocean best: sophisticated, cool and likeable. A gentle, thought-provoking comedy that’s well worth a watch.
Esther Jones
Rotten Tomatoes review here: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/up_in_the_air_2009/