Jason Reitman has a thing for contemporary relevance. In Thank You For Smoking he dared to expose the seductive lure of cigarettes whilst packets were being labeled with health warnings. In Juno he tackled teenage pregnancy and abortion, two social issues so sensitive in some parts of the world they may as well be considered taboo. And now he brings us Up In The Air, a film about a mobile downsizer who makes a living out of firing people in the difficult times of the global recession. How’s that for relevance?
The key strength of Up In The Air however is not its hefty real-life pertinence (although it does add substance to the narrative) but its ambiguous unpredictability. Those who have seen the trailer will think they have the film figured out from the start: heartless corporate agent is married to his career, meets a girl, falls in love, rethinks his life and comes out reformed, right? The answer is not a resounding “wrong!” but a hazy “not quite”.
That’s because Up In The Air, like its protagonist, is a film so easy to judge at first, only to catch us off guard when it suddenly reveals its hidden layers. Going into further detail would mean depriving viewers the pleasure of discovering them for themselves, so instead let’s move onto the film’s other high point, its leading actor.
Some may argue that Ryan Bingham’s only redeeming quality is that he is being played by George Clooney, a man so suave and winning in real life it is almost impossible to truly hate the guy, but to dismiss him as superficial would be a mistake. Here is a character who potentially has the most vile job in society yet it is mesmerizing to see how Bingham deftly handles the process of counseling people who have just been informed of their layoff. But Clooney also gets to impress in the scenes which do not involve resorting to his charisma and these are arguably the ones which will linger in viewers’ minds the longest. Seeing him hold back the tears with a warm smile as he reconnects with his estranged, soon-to-be-wed sister is a quietly moving moment.
Nevertheless Clooney is supported by two remarkable co-stars in the form of Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. The latter in particular gets to finally step out of Bella and Edward’s shadow (yes, she is Jessica from Twilight) and display a range of acting which her former co-stars can only dream of conveying.
Finally special mention should go to Reitman and Sheldon Turner for writing a profound yet intermittently very funny screenplay. In one scene Bingham lectures Kendrick’s character on how Asians are more efficient at airport security checks because they travel light and wear slip-on shoes. “That’s racist!”she exclaims. “No, I stereotype. It’s faster”, comes the reply.
However for all its praises and acclaim, Up In The Air remains a film that needs to be viewed and mused upon in order to be fully appreciated.
5/5
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