Up in the Air

We're always somewhere, but what about when we're at 45,000 feet, barreling toward some destination like Wichita or San Francisco? What is that space up there called? You are above some geographical locale but you're also nowhere simultaneously. I fly a fair amount and think about this often. We eat and drink, use the facilities, read, watch movies while we're a mile up in the sky, just like we do at home. Ryan Bingham feels very comfortable in a 757; it is his home. Bingham (George Clooney) also feels at home as he casually slinks through airports, having the whole post-911 protocols of shoe removal and carry-on particulars down to a science. He skips the unfortunates in long check-in lines because he's a valued member of probably every airline's Gold Club. He's trying to reach a certain frequent flier goal ("I have a number in mind"). His occupation? Flying all over the U.S. to carry out the hatchet work corporate bosses are too yellow-bellied to do themselves. Letting employees go. Some after many years of service. Many with families and mortgages. All with astonishment and sadness. In this economy of late, Bingham is quite busy. 

UP IN THE AIR tells his story. It documents and plays often like a documentary. We see Bingham march from city to city, delivering the terrible news to face after face, some of them real folks, non-actors who really did recently get the axe, recruited by co-screenwriter/director Jason Reitman. No acting can convey the lines and defeat like having been there. I was able to discern quite easily who the real folks and who the actors were. It is a nice touch. We also meet a young recent college grad named Natalie (Anna Kendrick) who joins Bingham's firm with fresh ideas. Why spend all this money on airfare and accomodations when the dirty work can be done over a computer monitor? Companies have meetings this way, the economy sucks, it makes sense. 

Bingham is skeptical, citing immediately the importance of face to face, noting examples of when being in the same space is necessary for crisis control. Mainly though, this new idea is a threat to his way of life. Natalie will accompany him to train, city by city learning more of this most curious of paradigms, baffled and appalled at how unemotional someone like Bingham can be. After all, she's a valedictorian who took this job in friggin' Omaha because, well, she was following a guy. He dumps her (by text, how current!) and she's distraught. She may be driven and smart and all, but she does have a heart, the same yearnings most of us espouse. She does not understand Bingham. We see this through a variety of emotional cues, sometimes outbursts. We'll see her progression throughout the story. But as stated, this is Bingham's tale. There's nothing duplicitous about him; he will unapologetically lay down his mantra for you. UP IN THE AIR is a study of a man who is either the most comfortable, well-adjusted human being in history, or the biggest case of self-denial. 

As people, we are supposed to desire friendships, families, love, connection. We are expected to accumulate things and people, take photographs, buy houses. It makes our backpacks heavy, as Bingham describes. In between firing people, he gives talks on how to lighten that backpack, how to free yourself of the burdens of relationships and acquisitions. As he states, we're all going to end up in the same place at the end of our lives, dying alone, so why spend so many years coveting things that will just pass away? Bingham does have a home base, in Omaha, in one of those extended stay hotels. A spartan room with nothing extraneous. This also includes no spouse, no real friendships. He has family in Wisconsin, but his communication with them is sporadic. Things change when he is called upon to attend his sister's wedding. He will begrudgingly attend, accompanied by Alex (Vera Farmiga), a no-strings-attached "road warrior" much like himself; "think of me as you, but with a vagina," she states as they embark on their relationship. The couple spend time with the family, and Ryan even settles into an apartment for a short time, though viewers would not know that unless they watch the deleted scenes on the DVD. These scenes establish Bingham's attempts to go legit, let some moss grow like humans do. Will he able to make this transition?

This movie was marketed as a potentially heartwarming story. It had "crowd pleaser" written all over it. Reitman's previous, JUNO, was indeed a crowd pleaser and the young director seems to be trying to create mainstream entertainments that have some modicum of thought, rather than just pandering to happy ending hungry audiences. Surely UP IN THE AIR will end happily, as audiences filled with scores of unemployed (and growing) are going to the movies to escape?! Reitman and co-writer Sheldon Turner refreshingly doen't follow the paths we might expect, at least not all of the time. The film seems to lead somewhere, but cold reality states otherwise. You might think this happens because, c'mon, an almost 50 guy with his own playbook can't change his spots this late in the race. Maybe. Maybe it is also because life has a few curveballs, things that don't fit neatly into a suitcase, or make it any lighter. If, say, Bingham begins to grow fonder and fonder of Vera, a woman who indeed seems to have the same philosphy on life as he, will he allow himself to become vulnerable? Ah, this makes the film sound like it really does have a heart? A ray of hope? I will let you discover that on your own.

I was pleasantly surprised with UP IN THE AIR, how it didn't play into the expected sentiment or whimsy. It just shows us one man's choices, and all the consequences of it. Some viewers may find him a suitable case for treatment, others may envy him, think he has it all together. Clooney is the perfect choice for this role. His suave detachment informs this character with ease. Farmiga is terrific as his companion of convenience, a nice match/foil for Clooney's own smugness. Her performance is multi-faceted, always surprising. She's as confident as he is, and perhaps even stronger in her resolve (ah, women tend to be). How rare for a film to allow a woman to be complex without being a double crossing femme fatale. 

However, the film is not perfect. Kendrick's performance was disappointing to me. Often, she seemed more like a type than a real person. I know there are lots of ambitious, anal retentives like her out there, but she still just played more like an idea, a conscience for Bingham. And, her big crying jag is probably the least convincing in recent movie history. Additionally, as much as I admired the screenplay, there are contrivances which perhaps keep UP IN THE AIR from being a modern classic. Like how Mr. Carefree is called upon to motivate a groom with cold feet, or how one of the fired employees threatens to commit suicide and the outcome informs climatic events. But all things considered, this film quite successfully examines a specimen who has learned how to keep the messiness of life and love at bay. He's like a more lighthearted version of Robert DeNiro's character from HEAT, the man who never let himself get attached to anything he was not willing to walk away from in 30 seconds flat. For Ryan Bingham, there may not be cops coming around the corner, but perhaps Life always threatens to. There's always another plane to catch...