Review: Up in the Air

A pitch-perfect George Clooney stars as superficially charming Ryan Bingham, a corporate layoff guy who is hired by companies to basically do their dirty work for them. A glib loner, Bingham also goes on the motivational speaking circuit to lecture people on having no attachments or baggage in their lives, and indeed he lives 322 days of the year on the road, living most of his days in hotels and collecting flying miles in order to become part of an exclusive 10,000,000 mile club (which is nothing like the mile high club, by the way). And he only ever travels with enough stuff for one suitcase. He considers his somewhat estranged sisters to be more of a minor annoyance than anything else, and his only real contact is with executive Vera Farmiga, who is basically Bingham’s female equivalent. They meet up at their mutual stops for casual sex with no strings attached. Bingham is perfectly happy and comfortable with this lifestyle, but all that is about to change, as scumbag boss Jason Bateman (in his smug, spineless element) has been persuaded by ambitious upstart ‘efficiency expert’ Anna Kendrick to implement new teleconference technology to allow people like Bingham to carry out layoffs online. This would mean that Bingham wouldn’t have to spend most of the year on the road and the company would save on travel expenses. Needless to say, the self-absorbed Bingham is just about the only person who would be aghast at the possibility of spending more time at home (and where might that be?), having built up a life of few attachments for himself. To give Kendrick a bit of experience and hopefully get her to reconsider, Bingham takes the ambitious youngster on one last firing round. Meanwhile, Bingham gets a call from sister Amy Morton that his baby sis Melanie Lynskey is getting hitched and his presence is required at the wedding back home in Wisconsin. It’s with spending time with Kendrick, Farmiga, and his sisters that Bingham becomes a little more reflective and maybe even critical of his own selfish, somewhat anti-social lifestyle. Danny McBride plays Lynskey’s dopey husband-to-be, and Sam Elliott has a cameo as a pilot.

 

This clever 2009 comedy-drama from director and co-writer Jason Reitman (Son of Ivan Reitman) is some kind of rarity. I mean, it really shouldn’t work, but it amazingly does. Not only does it feature a main character whose job it is to fire people (he’s hired in by companies to fire their employees, so they don’t need to do the dirty work themselves), not only is this character self-absorbed not all that likeable (though the higher-ups like Bateman come off even worse), but the film essentially sells itself as a comedy-drama and works fine on that level. Add to that the current economic climate, and you’ve got one seriously timely, entertaining, and fascinating film founded on some rather sad and unfortunate realities.

 

I’ve always found Clooney’s screen persona a bit off-putting but this uses his combination of charisma and smugness to perfection. It’s to Clooney’s credit (and the script), that we actually find this guy interesting to spend two hours with, because he’s basically a shallow bastard for 99.99% of it, to put it mildly. He sure is a smooth, shallow bastard, in Clooney’s hands, and for once, the combination of charisma and self-absorbedness help to give the film an interesting darker edge, as does the rather depressing subject matter. That might not always be a good thing, but here, it somehow works. The whole cast is pretty good, even Farmiga (who was Oscar-nominated) plays a role that she’s relatively suited for (i.e. A chilly female version of Clooney’s character), and she keeps the overwrought facial contortions to a tolerable minimum. In fact, this film started me on the path to kinda liking her, after loathing her up until this. Oscar-nominated Kendrick more than holds her own next to Clooney and making her know-it-all ultimately well-meaning (not to mention remarkably optimistic given her line of work). Also unforgettable are cameo players Sam Elliott (whose mere appearance in this cracked me up for reasons I’m still not quite sure of), and both J.K. Simmons (who was also in Reitman’s “Juno”, which I turned off after about 20 minutes out of irritation- something I am usually loathe to do) and Zach Galifianakis (who I normally detest but he’s hilarious here). The latter two are among several disgruntled employees whom Clooney and Kendrick fire, while most of the other people being fired aren’t actors but real-life people who are using their own experiences of being sacked. Those scenes are pretty damn remarkable, I must say, and often very, very funny in a savage, hurtful kind of way. I’m sure they were pretty cathartic for the people involved, too.

 

Overall this is a smart, interesting and somewhat unique film. A comedy about shallow executives and corporate downsizing that manages to have a bit of heart and savage wit, who’d have thunk it? It’s not the lightest or easiest comedy to digest (Clooney is basically in service of the Devil himself, and I’m not sure if I really cared about his relationship with the equally shallow Farmiga), but a lot less depressing and more enjoyable than you might expect. It’s truly a case of right subject, right tone, right actor, and the right time. Scripted by the director and Sheldon Turner (The remake of “The Longest Yard”, and “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning”) from the novel by Walter Kim.

 

Rating: B-