"Everyone needs a co-pilot" - ‘Up in the Air’ Review

Posted on January 9, 2010 - 6:49am by michael Up in the Air is exactly the kind of movie you might expect to result from a widespread economic crisis. It focuses on the gleeful success of a man whose job is to travel around the country in luxurious style, putting people out of their jobs at every stop. Reminds me of that rant that Michael Moore makes in every single one of his movies where he talks about GM closing their factory in beautiful Flint, Michigan, leaving the town jobless except for the one guy whose job it was to go around firing people. Add to that depressing situation a highly likable and morally vacuous man played by the likes of George Clooney, and it will be pretty hard to go wrong. 50 years ago, America had milkmen. They’re an emblem of classic American culture, and one that went obsolete almost overnight, as soon as those blasted supermarkets moved into small American towns across the nation – towns once rich with personality - and ruined everything with something as simple as plastic milk jugs and refrigerators. Travelling salesmen, another emblem of classic American culture, were summarily deleted for similar reasons. Now we have Ryan Bingham, a man who travels for a living and refuses to make connections with anyone, friend or family, because of the weight they add to his life. After all, why would you need a wife or girlfriend if you looked exactly like George Clooney? He’s a modern day traveling salesman and he absolutely loves it. Except he doesn’t sell stuff, he fires people. I didn’t know that there were companies that disliked issuing pink slips enough to pay what must be the high price to fly in someone like Bingham to come in and do it for them. He flies first class, has no address but that of his employer (an entire company that keeps 23 people in the skies at least 250 days a year doing the same thing), and does nothing but fire people and rack up the frequent flyer miles. Then again, my knowledge of corporate de-staffing procedures during times of financial crisis is not my strong point. I also don’t have a lot of experience in firing people. Maybe it’s really hard. Entering into Ryan’s perfect world is an uppity college grad named Natalie who swoops into his company, fast-talking his boss (Jason Bateman) with money-saving tips like pulling those 23 people out of the sky and swapping their constant first-class tickets for a bunch of webcams. Seems like this was an option that should have been considered long ago, but no matter. Ryan’s unhappy with the thought of having to stay in one place all the time. He couldn’t get away from his family or visit the other woman in his life, Alex (Vera Farmiga), who is the female version of himself. And that’s to say nothing about goal of achieving a certain number of frequent flyer miles. [caption id="attachment_68202" align="alignright" width="325" caption="What any good absentee brother would do."][/caption] Director Jason Reitman is causing quite a stir with his still budding but already hugely impressive and successful career. He debuted with the outstanding 2005 film Thank You For Smoking and also has the enormously popular Juno to his name, and Up in the Air may very well turn out to be the film that proves for the first time that he is no flash in the pan. He grew up in the creatively nourishing shadow of his father Ivan, and it’s pretty clear that he’s not going to have any trouble setting out on his own. A fantastic film from a young director. Up in the Air speaks well for the future of Hollywood. The Bean Meter