Up in the Air

Dashing charm-merchant, George Clooney, does his thing and sells this evenly paced indie heart-warmer to a mainstream audience.

Sharp dialogue, a sprinkling of social relevance and note-perfect performances from the three leads (with zinging on-screen chemistry) keep everything from getting mired in holiday season rom-com shmaltz. But only just.

Up in the Air floats between edgy indie movie and mainstream rom-com. But ultimately the movie is too thin to be anything more than a literate diversion.

Which is a pity, because there’s a lot to like here.

George Clooney is Ryan Bingham, a man whose morally questionable corporate job takes him all over the US. Content in the isolation his never-ending business trips afford, he lives out of his carry-on and is more loyal to his various frequent flyer programmes than to any human being. That is, until an uptight young go-getter arrives at the company with a new cost-cutting strategy that threatens to disrupt Bingham’s way of life.

At the same time, Bingham meets a fellow executive-class frequent flyer, the beautiful and self-assured Alex (Vera Farmiga). Maybe —just maybe — Bingham will realise that there’s more to life than clocking up air miles. No man is an island. We can’t make it through this trying existence alone. Blah, blah, blah, Happy Christmas.

So far, so Henry Higgins. But writer/director, Jason Reitmen, throws enough curveballs to liven up a tired Hollywood formula. While Up in the Air is not in the same league as classic comic meditations of life and love like The Apartment or When Harry Met Sally, it’s playing the same ballgame.

Reitman has a gift for tone and for getting charismatic performances out of his cast. Up in the Air delivers the same careful balance of sweet and sour as his two previous movies, the well-observed, razor-sharp Juno, and the somewhat less clever — but nonetheless rewarding — Thank You for Smoking.

Like the latter movie, Up in the Air picks at the scabs of America’s corporate soul. But it’s not really about that, and the “social relevance” feels a little milked at times.

However, it’s already picked up several nominations for its leads at the Screen Actors Guild awards, and it’s tipped for Oscar contention (duking it out against the superb offerings Inglorious Basterds, The Hurt Locker and Precious).

You’d be hard pushed to find a more charming movie, and charm goes a long way to re-furbing some well-worn themes.

By: Brian Herron

Here’s the trailer: