Up In The Air
George Clooney in Up In The Air
Tuesday, 12, Jan 2010 06:51
Directed by Jason Reitman, out January 15th in cinemas, starring George Clooney, Anna Kendrick, Vera Farmiga, running time 109 mins.
What's it all about?
Corporate downsizing expert and constant traveller Ryan Bingham (Clooney) is coming tantalisingly close to realising his dream of achieving ten million frequent flyer miles. But meeting his female alter ego (Farmiga) and the arrival of a bullish young graduate (Kendrick) within his company puts Ryan at risk of being forced to call somewhere home.
As an example...
"I didn't want to ask you this because I know how you are about doing anything for... others." - Kara
"Never get behind old people. Their bodies are littered with hidden metal and they never seem to appreciate how little time they have left. Bingo, Asians. They pack light, travel efficiently, and they have a thing for slip on shoes. Gotta love 'em." - Ryan
"That's racist." - Natalie
"I'm like my mother, I stereotype. It's faster." - Ryan
What the others say
"An assertively, and unapologetically, tidy package, from its use of romance to instil some drama into the narrative (the book introduces disease instead) and the mope-rock tunes that Mr Reitman needlessly overuses." - Manohla Dargis, New York Times
"Laughs and heartbreak meld seamlessly in this brilliant character drama." - Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter
So is it any good?
An actor blessed with such looks and charisma as George Clooney will always find his craft coming second to his celebrity. Both the line of barely journalistic interrogation at his recent London Film Festival appearances, and Jason Reitman's pie charts of question popularity during the Up In The Air press tour, confirm that the increasingly rich and nuanced performances of the one-time ER star are overlooked once his big brown eyes appear on screen. But hopefully, thanks to his latest release, Clooney will soon be credited with the respect he deserves as an actor, rather than being pigeonholed as just one of many former People's Sexiest Man Alive winners.
His performance in Up In The Air is his strongest chance of a best actor Oscar yet, channelling the same depths of sub-human ambition and alienation for which Daniel Day-Lewis was rewarded in There Will Be Blood. In his inability to form a lasting relationship, in his apparent lack of a heart, Ryan Bingham is the corporate culture cousin to Daniel Plainview, both men's misanthropy offset by their towering, destructive inner drive. Clooney is both charming and distant as man alone Ryan, and aside from the similarities to his own childlessness and bachelorhood that are too clear to ignore, it's probably his finest performance.
There's no surprise in learning that Clooney signed on after reading through Reitman's script in one sitting as, like Mickey Rourke's lead role in The Wrestler, this is the part of a lifetime. Ryan is a complex, seductive, steadily revealed character that bears enough similarity to the Clooney we know to allow humanity and authenticity into the performance. The needs and musts of Clooney's character - jetting hither and thither to 'let go' countless victims of the economic downturn on behalf of their spineless superiors - could cause audiences to hate Ryan but Clooney brings such likeability to the part that we'd rather hug than hit the travelling assassin.
It's not all George though, and without the superb support of Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga, or Reitman's keenly framed visuals, Up In The Air would be a fine movie with a excellent leading man, rather than the great work it is.
The latter - who can celebrate his third success in a row - again offers an offbeat and fresh eye, with wide aerial shots implying the millions of similar stories lying below Ryan's travels. Slick cutting for check-in/check-out scenes, meanwhile, smack of a frequent flyer take on Darren Aronofsky's sped-up drug prep sequences in Requiem For A Dream. Reitman also handles the tone well, recovering from a second act drop in pace with deftly worked character transformations and adroitly balancing the consistent laughs with ruminations on our troubled times and the lack of connections in an increasingly connected world.
Kendrick, meanwhile, brilliantly holds her own against Clooney and proves that, despite Kristen Stewarts lip-biting, from the Twilight Saga do fine actors grow. Farmiga, the onscreen Bacall to Clooney's Bogey, also excels, bringing maturity and hurt to her scenes with Kendrick and almost setting the screen alight with pheromones in one sizzling scene of "elite status" one-upmanship with Clooney.
Finally, Reitman's script, honed from Sheldon Turner's adaptation of Walter Kirn's novel, aligns heart and, for anyone who's felt the brunt of the recession, horribly familiar set-pieces with a commendably high laugh count. Up In The Air is that rare beast - a film that's both funny and prescient, one that can captivate you with its performances and make you laugh to the point of jaw-ache but also leave you moved.
9/10
Lewis Bazley