Up in the Air

Up in the Air (2009) – on rental. Back about 13 years ago the region was hard hit by the first Asian economic recession. While those in the public education sector were still reasonably secure in their jobs, the rest of us who were in private education – as with the rest of the private sector – was going through a lot of downsizing and winding down of business operations that weren’t making sufficient returns. It was a really bad time, and I know and personally also witnessed close friends and colleagues who lost their jobs.

Up in the Air is a new drama from the young American director Jason Reitman, who’s also made two of my other favorite recent modern day dramas centered on very modern social themes; the multi-award winning Juno (reviewed here), and Thank You for Smoking. It stars George Clooney, who plays a jet-flying executive, Ryan Bingham, and whose main line of business is playing proxy to other companies who are downsizing. His job is to break the bad news to those persons who are being retrenched.

Interestingly, 12 years ago I would have thought Clooney was going to be a major star of action-thriller-type movies. But it’s been anything but. Clooney in this new film adds yet another endorsement to that uncanny ability of his to choose the right dramatic roles in non-big budget films which are all turning out to be critical hits.

His role in Up in the Air is a very slightly different this time though: in all those dramas he’s made in the last decade, his characters are routinely somewhat boisterous, purposeful, and a little larger than life. As Ryan, he’s a lot more mellow, occasionally indecisive and unsure and – dare I say it – displaying some degree of vulnerability. Which really makes him very likable.

His predicament, surprisingly, isn’t so much in his job of giving people their firing orders. In fact, the whole nasty business of retrenchment by proxy is just one of the two themes in the film. The other – about adult commitments in relationships – is introduced early on in the film through Alex (Vera Farmiga), an attractive also frequent air traveler. The two begin a casual relationship, but it slowly starts transforming possibly into something else when the two genuinely enjoy each other’s company and try harder to rearrange their travel itineraries so that they can meet more often.

There’s a third character in the mix; a young new hire from Ryan’s retrenchment experts company, named Natalie and played by the very attractive Anna Kendrick. She’s no bimbo though. She’s young, idealistic, and at the forefront of proposing radical changes to the company’s business operations that would render Ryan’s personalized methods obsolete. Introduced as a character to drive to first theme in the story, there’s a very smooth and well-done transition of the character’s story contribution towards the second theme about adult commitments in relationships from the second half of the film. The one (minor) gripe I’ve got for the film is that between the two film resolutions between Ryan and Natalie, and Ryan and Alex; the former’s satisfactory, while the latter feels… as though it’s still hanging somewhere.

The film’s story takes us through different cities in America, including the international airport in St. Louis, which Matt takes off from to fly to Singapore. Yep, it’s my first on-screen look at the airport that our Ang Mo bud often complains about LOL.

Up in the Air doesn’t cheat on the ending too. But while it’s not an entirely happy one, it doesn’t feel false in any way, and exactly like what a similar situation would really result in in real-life too. Great film, lovely locales, and wonderful performances from the three leads. Great movie.