Up in the Air: Review By slysnide

Not often does a film's title reflect the film itself. But this is one of those cases, as all it features is a short escapade by a travelling jerk, or at least that's what his clients' employees would call him.

George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man with no social life who goes around laying off employees of companies whose bosses haven't the courage to do so themselves. He is accompanied by rookie Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) whose plan to cheapen the process fiscally and morally {as if the latter could be further accomplished} has landed her as his apprentice so she can get the idea of what it is he and his colleagues do on a daily basis, and how it not just alters their lives, but is their lives. For rather than a committed relationship, Ryan is better suited for Alex (Vera Farmiga), a fellow frequent flier with no life beyond work. And rather than a home in the suburbs with a wife and kids, it's the life of the airline lounger who gets a lot of airline perks from his job that caters to the anti-social life he leads, leaving his mostly vacant apartment to collect dust year round.

As for Natalie Keener, besides following her personal dilemma with her boyfriend--which is utterly trivial given the nature of her job--it also details her change of opinion on how to do business, or at least that business. Though given her repertoire with Ryan (being the seasoned old school employee), then it's not a stretch to figure that's what the film will feature from her angle. Anna Kendrick's performance on the other hand is nothing special, just a scene being smashed, a scene in tears, and several others as the overly professional business obsessed person. So basically the three ingredients required to qualify for quality acting in drama films these days. For the role is similar to Tilda Swinton's Oscar winning role in "Michael Clayton" (2007) acting-wise in that it too was nothing special, but seen as such from many others. The character's journey however was somewhat comical in that she kind of starts getting it early on; the concept of the heartlessness of what they do in contrast to her personal dilemmas that is.

George Clooney's performance is yet again that of the guy who's a know it all surrounded by people who don't care how much they try and change his perfect existence. And of course nobody understands the preference of his lifestyle besides his 'casual girlfriend' Alex. But once again, that's nothing new from Clooney. Although the most intriguing aspect of the film surround's the mystery of his character's ultimate life goal that epitomizes who he is by the life he lives.That's perfectly evidenced by his experience with relatives in Wisconsin, which further serves to showcase Ryan's social awkwardness towards regular people, as his life operates like a machine most of the time. So basically, it was nothing new for Clooney.

Overall, the film is chalk full of airline terminals, office cubicles, and airline lounges. Ultimately a character study on a life less ordinary. Nothing wrong with that, but it lends itself to criticism given that like "Taxi Driver" (1976) and "The Conversation" (1974) before it, everything you need to know about the main character is in the first fifteen minutes of the film, and for a character study, that's not especially a good thing. Still enjoyable to an extent, but unless I read Walter Kirn's novel, then I'll stay up in the air on this one.