Movie Review: Up in the Air
If there’s one thing that’s seemed markedly “now” to me as I’ve grown into an independent, adult lifestyle, it’s that people my age choose to isolate ourselves by connecting with others. We make friends in the comfort of our own homes, sitting in front of a computer. More of us than ever seemed possible during our parents’ generation work from home. We run our errands and pick up our staple supplies from online warehouses.
Out of this soup of networked isolation comes “Up in the Air,” Jason Reitman‘s latest film, built on the central conceit that even during the worst non-death moment of most peoples’ lives, human contact is preferable.
If you’ve seen “Thank You For Smoking” or “Juno,” you know that Reitman makes charming movies with agreeable, personable characters – whether they are “good” or “bad,” they tend to come across as Easy Listening. And that’s not pejorative; it’s Reitman’s strengh, as it arises from a knack for relying the exactly correct amount on the audience’s pre-conceived notions and archetypes. When you see Jason Bateman in a suit with slick hair and a slight stubble, you immediately know the moral dimensions of his character.
What this strength allows Reitman to do is twofold: it makes the characters easier to relate to, and allows him to spend more time on the plot points and bits of characterization that actually matter to those plot points. In fact, this is why his films turn out so well – consciously and subconsciously, it’s always clear what point he’s trying to make.
“Up in the Air” is probably my favorite of his films, adjusted for my own personal bias towards argument that bolsters “Thank You For Smoking.” George Clooney, playing the protagonist who is surprisingly human in firing meetings while living the rest of his life under a robotic traveler’s code, is the right mix of confident purposefulness and un-admitted yearning. The thing you realize about him is that he’s a conundrum; he has to be somewhat inhuman to do his job, but he has to be somewhat human, too. Networked isolation, remember?
The two key supporters in the film are Vera Farmiga as Clooney’s fellow road warrior and appropriately-aged hookup, and Anna Kendrick as his pseudo-protege that masterminds the plan to start firing people remotely, which of course proves to be her moral undoing. Both actresses have strong moments, comedically and dramatically. Their conversation about the value of relationships – which uses their age gap to maintain levity – is one of the highlights of the film, and for all the ballyhoo about Clooney’s performance, he finds himself, in that instance, simply along for the ride.
And perhaps that is another of Reitman’s strengths. In none of his films does any one aspect feel “put on a pedestal” to the detriment of the bigger picture. In “Up in the Air,” the performances are great and there are moments of great humor and great sadness, often in close proximity, but the film never loses sight of its mediations on human contact, even as each of the three main characters face their own twist. The end of the film isn’t “happy” or “uplifting,” but like Clooney’s character, it’s stayed in one place long enough to end up someplace different from where it began.
