Up in the Air

Tagline: The story of a man ready to make a connection.

So, I saw this movie as a part of my dedicated Oscar week in which to view all of the films nominated for best picture. I had wanted to see this movie when it came out but didn’t have the chance. It’s directed and co-written by Jason Reitman, who directed Juno and also directed/co-wrote Thank You For Smoking, which are two great films and was the main reason behind my desire to see this film. The movie is also nominated for best actor, best supporting actress ( both for Kendrick and Farmiga,), best director, and best adapted screenplay.



The plot follows Ryan Bingham, played by George Clooney, who works as a traveling ‘termination engineer’ who is hired by various companies across the nation to fire their employees. He spends 340 days out of the year traveling and has come to embrace and covet his lifestyle and all the travel perks associated with it. Soon he encounters his female counterpart, played by Vera Farmiga, and one thing leads to another and they end up syncing their outlook travel calendars. Not too soon after does he meet a new executive of his company fresh out of graduate school at the ripe age of 23, played by Anna Kendrick, who is set on revolutionizing their company and conduct the terminations via the internet and webcam, thus ‘grounding’ all of the traveling workers. As a result of Binghams’ effort to stay in the field, Kendrick’s character, Natalie Keener is sent with him to observe at the insistence of their mutual boss, played by Jason Bateman.


The script was adapted from a novel written by Walter Kirn. Reitman first began working on the screenplay in 2002 when the economy was booming but had to push it to the backburner in order to work on Juno and Thank You For Smoking. He then revisited the script in the now current recession which gave it a different tone all together. The dialogue is witty and contains lots of dry humor. We get insight and development from the leads, Clooney and Kendrick. The characters are complex and well written. The story is captivating yet subtle. I really enjoyed the symbolism of the virtual firing advocated by Kendrick’s character and how this mimicked the empty isolated life led by Clooney’s character. They both fought against each other’s ideas without realizing they were embracing the same ideologies. Overall this was a really smart script.


The cinematography was beautiful and the editing superb. There were many mini-montages that worked beautifully with the music to artistically mirror the repetitive motions of Bingham’s life up in the air. I would have really liked to see this film nominated for best editing. The film had a nice blue filter which was in keeping with the tone and bleakness of the message. The camera angles were nicely done and went above the basic master and close up shots. The pace of the movie was smooth and subtle. Even though the story was not action-packed it didn’t seem to lag.


Anna Kendrick deserves the nomination for best supporting actress. She became that character. It was written with her in mind however Ellen Page and Emily Blunt were initially considered for the role. This character would have not been as genuine or sympathetic if either of those actresses taken on the role. The whole tone of the movie most likely would have shifted with Pages’ dry sarcastic delivery. I will make a bold statement and say that Clooney was not the perfect match for this role. He did a great job and pulls of the smugness and confident parts of the character with ease. The problem with him is that George Clooney cannot pull of vulnerability. There were some scenes in which he should have appeared semi-vulnerable and open, but he just misses the mark. George Clooney is George Clooney, how could anyone hurt him? This character was not that far off from his Ocean’s Eleven character. I would actually have to say that I would not have considered him for best actor for this role simply because he did quite pull off the intended semi-vulnerability the part called for and this role is nothing new for him. I’m not entirely sure who I would have like to have seen cast, but possibly a Steve Martin or Colin Firth type actor. I liked Farmiga’s performance better in The Departed but her character was given more development in that movie compared to this one. I think she encompassed this role and was believable but didn’t make enough of an impact as Kendrick did to garner the nomination. I think it was an amazing decision to use real life people who had recently been terminated from a job as the people who are getting fired in the movie. That was such an awesome direction and gave the movie real credibility and would actually give substance to the current situation in our nation today and the impersonal tone many businesses have begin to embrace.


I agree with the best director, adapted screenplay, supporting actress (for Kendrick), and possibly the best film nominations. I enjoyed this film as it had an indie feel with great performances, superb editing, and a quirky dryly subtle script. I would recommend to anyone who would enjoy a subtly humorous outlook on life in our world today. This movie was very quotable; “Would you like the cancer?”, “The what” “ Would you like the can, sir?”