Jeff Beck Reviews: Up in the Air
Writer/Director Jason Reitman has done something that very few directors are able to do nowadays. He has given us three outstanding films in a row: “Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno,” and now his latest project, “Up in the Air.” His new film is a smart, edgy comedy/drama that actually has a lot of relevance to today’s economy and the newly unemployed.
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is a corporate downsizer. When a company doesn’t want the responsibility of firing one of their own employees, they bring in Ryan to break the news to them. This causes Ryan to be on the road most of the time, flying from place to place, not really having a home to call his own except a small apartment in Omaha, which he is rarely ever at. When a new employee, Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), is hired and recommends doing the firing by video conferencing, Ryan feels that his life on the road is threatened.
Meanwhile, his boss, Craig (Jason Bateman), sends Ryan out on the road again and sends Natalie with him so that he can show her the ropes of what he does. She watches his technique and eventually gets to try firing a few people on her own. On one of his previous stops, Ryan meets Alex (Vera Farmiga), someone else who is always on the road. They quickly take a liking to each other and begin to meet up whenever their schedules coincide, and yet, Ryan has no interest in falling in love.
With this film’s recent Golden Globe nominations, I was rather surprised to see it placed in the drama category as it had been marketed as a comedy. However, after seeing it, it’s understandable how it could be in either category. The film is extremely funny, but then you remember what the film is actually about. Plus, it’s not all about the laughs, but also about a man trying to defend his place in the world while also having to open up to the possibility of finding a new one.
Reitman has an extraordinary talent for taking dramatic situations and filling them with great comedic moments. “Thank You For Smoking” has a man defending cigarettes and “Juno” has a teenager getting pregnant, yet both films have multiple laugh-out-loud moments. It takes great skill to mix these two genres without turning it into an overly-sappy film.
The screenplay, by Reitman and Sheldon Turner, continues the tradition by providing several hilarious moments, but knowing when the dramatic material of the project needs to take over, but even then, it doesn’t forget that a lot of this material is funny.
Clooney is at the top of his game with his performance as Ryan Bingham. You could say that he has no heart, just really loves his job, or both. Watching him fire someone is like watching Nick Naylor defend cigarettes in “Thank You For Smoking.” Both men talk for a living and are really good with words. Ryan must assure the person being fired that they have a future and merely hands them a packet with information inside.
Some of the best scenes of the film are the scenes in which people are fired. There is one scene with the great J.K. Simmons (a criminally underused actor) where, after Natalie has tried to let him go, Ryan convinces him to follow his dream of being a French chef. Another such scene involves a trial run of firing someone over the video linkup in which a man breaks down crying, but Natalie is able to get herself together and do her job.
In addition to these longer scenes, Reitman includes quick montages of different people being let go which provide several different reactions. One of the most standard responses has people questioning why they would be fired after several loyal years of service to their company. Another common response is wanting to know who Ryan and Natalie are and how they can sleep at night, doing what they do.
Along with Clooney, there are two other great performances in the film from Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga. Kendrick’s Natalie is so full of spunk, ready to revolutionize the downsizing business by cutting costs significantly, but is also perplexed by a man like Ryan Bingham, who doesn’t want to settle down anywhere or with anyone. Farmiga’s Alex merely takes advantage of the situation that she and Ryan have together with living their lives on the road. She, like Ryan, is mysterious in that we’re not really sure what they want out of the relationship.
There were a few scenes that looked like they were struggling to find a purpose in the film, particularly a series of them in the middle, however, the scenes that did this near the end, slowly reveal a deeper purpose, so though they seem like they are just extending the film, we come to understand that Ryan is trying to come to terms with what is happening in his life, and there’s no better place to start than with family.
What Reitman has put together here is a film with a relevant and dramatic situation with fantastic touches of humor. Add to that the great performances from the three leads and you get a film that has lived up to its hype of having already won several “best picture” awards from various critics’ groups across the country.
3.5/4 stars.
You can read this and other movie reviews in my column at The Richmond Examiner.
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