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Up In the Air (2009)

Director: Jason Reitman

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From Time Out Online

At first glance, 'Up in the Air' looks like just another flashy corporate romcom: fast-talking, snappily dressed Gable 'n' Hepburn wannabees sipping strong cocktails to the strains of David Holmes-lite muzak. A focus on the American financial crisis – and its human fallout in the form of job losses and home foreclosures – feels like vaguely distasteful window dressing, an exploitative backdrop to George Clooney’s swingin’ adventures in the high-flying world of executive travel.

And this is exactly what director Reitman wants us to think, drawing in his audience with flashy aesthetics, toe-tapping tunes and Clooney’s finest line in old school smouldering, before whipping back the curtain and exposing the emptiness that lies behind this enticing veneer. As Ryan Bingham, corporate hatchet-man (or, as he prefers to see himself, unemployment counseller) for hire, Clooney has rarely been better, juggling self-reliant charmer and dead-eyed sociopath with remarkable dexterity.

There are plenty of opportunities for ‘Up in the Air’ to go off the rails: a burgeoning affair with Vera Farmiga’s equally self-reliant Alex promises gooey romance, a mentor-student relationship with Anna Kendrick’s spiky business novice Natalie hints at the awakening of suppressed paternal feelings, while a trip north for sister Melanie Lynskey’s wedding leaves the door wide for all manner of hugging, learning and growing.

And yet Reitman manages to keep his ship on an even keel: Ryan and Alex’s romance remains snappy and unsentimental right to its shocking conclusion, while his attempts to school Natalie in the ways of business lead only to a mounting series of distressing realisations. And while the wedding features a certain amount of hugging, it's hard to argue there’s any real learning or growing going on: this is, in the end, a movie about stasis, and the trap that the comfortable, unexamined life represents. Flawed it may be, but this is still a witty, thoughtful, surprisingly bleak satire on contemporary America, and the crumbling dream it represents.

Author: Tom Huddleston 2009-10-08 11:32:10

Time Out Online London Film Festival 2009

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Up In the Air
BFI 53rd London Fim Festival. 14-29 Oct 2009

Cast & crew

Director: Jason Reitman

Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Jason Bateman full cast

Genre(s): Comedy

Duration: 104 mins


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