Up In The Air

Up in the Air* * * *
Up In the Air
– sp – George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham a man whose job is to fly around the country and fire people since their bosses didn’t want to do it themselves. He is very well accommodated to life in the air without much of a home base. He has learned all the tricks of this life style and makes the point that one should travel light since baggage weighs you down. He also feels that relationships weigh you down. He has traded the messiness of relationships for neatness and efficiency Screenwriter and Director Jason Reitman (son of Ivan the Director) who was a guest at our screening told us that he took six years to write this movie. During this time he married, became a father, directed Thank you For Smoking and Juno, which he also penned. While still a young man he appears to have learned enough about life to show a core of sensitivity in his main character in this movie who develops insight into his own loneliness. Vera Farmiga plays Alex, a woman who appears to be the female equivalent of Bingham but yet his attraction to her challenges his notions about life, as does the impending wedding of his sister and his realization of how he is regarded by his family. There is clever dialog and meaningful themes, which not only deal with relationships but also with the hardship of job loss and unemployment. Reitman shares with us how when he started writing the script the economy was in full gear but by the time he was shooting it, the idea of people losing their jobs was much more common and personal to so many people in this country. He therefore chose to use real people who had recently lost their job to play the parts of a series of people being fired in the film. This provided an intensity and authenticity in these people, which Reitman admits he could not have written. This movie deftly combines comedy, realism and thought provoking emotion. (2009)

Category: 4 Stars, Drama | Tags: , , , , Comment »


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