By Jonathan Fisher, January 18th, 2010
In Up in the Air, George Clooney plays a character that we would assume at first glance to be an A-grade jerk. Clooney plays Ryan Bingham as a relentlessly smug and handsome businessman with little time for thoughts of settling down in one place, let alone with a wife and children. His job seems to be a a few rungs down on the occupational ladder, right under parking inspector. He’s a Termination Facilitator (although I liked the sound of “Terminator” better). When companies want to downsize but don't want to deal with the personal conflict that comes with it, Bingham flies to the company's base, sits with the newly-redundant staff and informs them that they are fired. In tough times, business is a-booming.
It’s interesting to note that this film, directed by Jason Reitman (Juno), was actually knocking about well before the financial collapse of 2008. In today’s context, of course, Up in the Air takes on a topicality that Reitman and his crew probably weren’t expecting. The scenes of the shocked, angry, and mournful (former) employees that Bingham fires take on a kind of pathos that audiences probably wouldn’t otherwise feel. Movies like this remind us that cinema does not exist in a vacuum, and that it is impossible to go into a film with an entirely ‘clean slate’. When you walk into a movie cinema, you bring the baggage of a.) every movie you’ve ever seen before, and b.) the societal context that you find yourself in at any given moment.
That being said, it would be easy to dismiss Up in the Air as a film that relies heavily on its surrounding reality for its effect. But Up in the Air is so precise, so funny and so observant in its study of this unique man. Bingham loves his job, and when we finally see him really work his stuff on a despondent middle-aged man played by J.K. Simmons (Juno’s Dad), we see that it’s not the entirely callous undertaking that we initially assumed.
Two women accompany Bingham on his journey throughout Up in the Air. One is his co-worker, a young upstart named Natalie Keener, played by Twilight’s Anna Kendrick, who shows more range than I was expecting, given her pedigree. Natalie has come up with an idea for Bingham’s boss (Arrested Development’s Jason Bateman in slimy corporate mogul mode) that will save the company millions in air-fares for its employees. Rather than sending out every agent to each company around the U.S., Natalie proposes that newly redundant employees be informed of their sacking via webcam. Needless to say, Bingham is not happy with this. For one thing, this would mean that his dream of reaching 10 million frequent flyer miles would evaporate faster than you can say ‘generous redundancy package’. But there is also an element of job satisfaction and empathy in Ryan’s vehement opposition to Natalie’s idea, and when Natalie herself is chosen to test the new system, we understand why.
The second woman is Alex (Vera Farmiga, Academy Award worthy in this role), a woman after Ryan’s own heart. She also lives predominantly in airports and airplanes, and a romance of sorts begins between the two after Ryan woos her with his impressive array of loyalty cards. Their relationship seems perfect. Neither seems to want any commitment, but they can still connect on a basic level of shared interests, with those interests being love-making, accumulating air miles and gloating about how happy they are being alone and successful. The final direction of this relationship is one of the most intriguing turns of the movie, flipping our expectations and bucking the formula that romances usually adhere to in movies of this nature. The outcome of Alex and Ryan’s relationship has consequences on Ryan’s final enlightenment (or refusal to accept enlightenment).
Up in the Air is influenced by screwball comedies as well as existential character pieces. George Clooney, I believe, would have been a mega-star in any era, and some of his backs-and-forth with Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga could easily have been found in a Cary Grant movie from the 1930s and 40s. But throughout there’s something a bit skewed about Bingham’s smile, and eventually his path takes him to an existential confrontation with himself. Expertly guided by Jason Reitman (who does more ‘directing’ in this movie than he did in either Juno or Thank You for Smoking), Clooney delivers yet another pitch-perfect performance. Ryan Bingham definitely grows on us, despite his initial façade of narcissism and self-servitude. Bingham is surrounded by, and interacts with, thousands of people who find themselves in a precarious and stressful position (one character says that losing your job is as stressful as a death in the family), and yet it’s Bingham who appears to have one of the greatest crises of character. I’m not sure if I’m paraphrasing a famous quote here, but Up in the Air demonstrates, without becoming too twee or sentimental, that a life without love is not a life worth living.
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