Movie Review – Up in the Air
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Up in the Air. On the one hand, there’s been lots of positive buzz about it, but I didn’t really know what it was about. It turned out to be one of those films were most of the best lines are delivered in the trailer. Yet, that didn’t take away from their resonance when delivered in scene or mean the rest of the film wasn’t any less poignant.
Up in the Air is about Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a man who spends most of his time in the air and living out of hotels while traveling for his company. His job is to fire the workers that companies are too ashamed or afraid to fire themselves. It’s not an easy job or a thankful one, but he’s good at it and he loves his lifestyle.
Enter naïve Cornell grad Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick). I’ve been a big fan of Anna Kendrick since first seeing her in “Rocket Science”. She’s a fantastic actress with great presence. Natalie has the brilliant idea of streamlining the company’s entire firing process online. Instead of flying around the country, costing the company first-class tickets and fancy hotel room stays, they can sit Ryan in front of a computer and fire the employees from there. Ryan disagrees that such a job can be so impersonal, but is ordered to take Natalie along with him to show her the ropes by their boss, Craig (a small role, but well delivered by Jason Bateman).
Natalie is a rookie traveler and Ryan does his best to show her how to be faster and more efficient. Where Natalie really struggles though, is sitting across from people while telling them they no longer have a job. She realizes the full weight of what they do and what a difference it makes doing it in person.
Overall, it’s a very lighthearted movie with some funny moments. But there is something more just under the surface, revealing each character’s struggle with mortality along the way. “What’s the point,” one man asks when getting cold feet before a wedding. Ryan doesn’t have an answer. Nobody does. But everyone tries to find one and leave his mark, whether it’s through love, marriage, or collecting a record number of frequent flier miles.
The walls Ryan has spent years building up slowly get torn down by Natalie and by Alex (Vera Farmiga), a woman who lives the same type of lifestyle he does. Does he completely change? No. But he shows a willingness to connect with people again, no matter how much it hurts. Because we all need that human interaction, regardless of how difficult it is for us to control, or how painful it can be. That’s how we leave our mark.