A single-minded man
George Clooney’s most perfect role bolsters an otherwise lacking film
By Erik Hayden 01/07/2010
Up in the Air
Directed by Jason Reitman
Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick
Rated R for language and some sexual content
1 hr. 47 min.
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is a bachelor in his early 40s who dresses nicely and fires people for a living. He doesn’t revel in the job (unlike Aaron Eckhart’s tobacco lobbyist in Thank You for Smoking ), and he isn’t particularly cold-hearted. When Bingham is hired for a gig, he sets up shop in a corner office and does what any good boss should do: ease the pain of an unexpected layoff and transition the employee into a new life. It takes finely honed diplomatic skills and a little charisma to pull this off.
Before the end of the afternoon, however, he’s gone — leaving the mess behind him as he boards another flight to another city, another hotel and another job. This is the real reason that Bingham works for the layoff company. He loves the traveling, noncommittal Admirals Club lounging lifestyle. A hotel bed with crisp sheets, members-only amenities and a decent enough dining room is home sweet home. What could be better? Apparently, not much.
Up in the Air takes pains to portray Bingham’s commitment issues as the film’s defining conflict, but it only halfheartedly sells this to the audience. Perhaps this is because Clooney is the new archetype of the sophisticated Hollywood bachelor, and it’s near-impossible to make him appear desperate or pathetic (at least in the way the script calls for). Or maybe it’s due to the odd casting of nearly every bit character that is married, gets laid off, doesn’t dwell in a city or routinely travels first class. Three words: they’re all ugly (at least by Hollywood standards).
This had to be a conscious decision by the director, Jason Reitman, to show “real-looking” people as models of perseverance — enduring the pains of marriage, job-loss, etc. But it plays onscreen as cloying, more than a little manipulative and — in contrast to Clooney’s appealing globetrotter — as a pale representative of the charm of domestic suburban life.
Because of this, it’s hard to root for Clooney to settle down with someone, anyone. Even when he travels back to his sister’s Milwaukee wedding, his lifestyle ends up looking much better than that of the dumpy rural couple who gets married in an unquestionably tacky, lower-middle-class wedding. It’s much more fun to watch the bachelor glide in and out of airport terminals with his meticulous travel bag while hitting on another lonely traveling exec (Vera Farmiga) and eagerly showing the upstart employee (Anna Kendrick) the ropes.
Once the audience can forget that the main character is supposed to settle down, the movie is actually a breezy romp through the nation’s finer airport hotels — a refreshing, and distant, fantasy guided by the jaded but endlessly likable lead.
This is, of course, what Clooney does best: glibly bantering and playing off actors with much more range and depth than he possesses. Not to say that he has poor talent, just that he recognizes his limitations and lets the other leads (particularly Anna Kendrick as the brilliantly neurotic recent grad) hit the highest notes. These scenes — and not the window dressing of job losses — are what truly make the film a potential Oscar contender.
Up in the Air has billed itself “the movie of the moment,” but don’t be fooled. It’s not due to the movie’s universal economic themes; it’s because Clooney has finally found (and brilliantly portrayed) a character that suits him best — a smug, likable commitment-averse elitist.
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT