Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick
Ryan Bingham (Clooney) is a suave and sophisticated nomad. He lives 10,000 feet ‘up in the air’ and he is as uncomfortable on the ground, staying in one place, as most other people are during take-off. Ryan’s job (he fires people for a living) means that he travels for around 362 days every year. He has a lavish selection of travelling accessories, but his apartment looks more like a hospital room than a home.
But Ryan likes it this way. He is constantly surrounded by people who don’t bother him with their emotional baggage (they are too busy with their physical baggage); he can enjoy fleeting romances with the beautiful Alex (Farmiga) and devour complimentary buffet meals ad infinitum; and he even has a life goal… if he reaches 10 million airmiles he will get a plane named after him.
This contented existence is obliterated by the arrival of a feisty, headstrong college graduate, Natalie (Kendrick) who wants to increase the company’s efficiency by firing people over the Internet (via webcam) rather than sending Ryan and his peers to do it in person. Ryan protests on the basis that this is a cold and heartless way to perform a delicate act… but his real problem is the terrifying prospect of having to work in an office and lose his home in the sky.
Ryan is tasked with showing Natalie the ropes. Arriving at the airport with a cumbersome suitcase, we soon realise that Natalie is the ‘Donkey’ to Ryan’s ‘Shrek’; she is a needy and annoying hormonal adolescent with the backbone of a fifty-year-old spinster. But Ryan graciously shows her how to survive in his bewildering world of departure lounges and connecting flights, and eventually they begin to see eye to eye.
While this relationship provides some light-hearted, but genuine, humour, this really is a thoughtful film about the nomadic existence that so many people seem to lead in this fast-paced modern world. The prospect of having to settle down forces Ryan to consider his options, and he begins a more serious relationship with Alex. He also agrees to go to his sister’s wedding, and it is here that he realises a life filled with attachments and emotional baggage might not be such a hard life after all.
Jason Reitman has proved once again, after Thank You for Smoking and Juno, that he has a masterful eye for thought-provoking, fast-paced comedies. This film is infinitely superior to its US comedy cousin at this festival, The Men Who Stare At Goats. That film is insincere, cheap, and meaningless; Up In The Air works hard to achieve its funny moments, and they are all the more raucous and enjoyable for it.
Nobody other than George Clooney could have played this role. He is a modern-day Cary Grant, not just because of his looks and his demeanour, but because of the public’s constant fascination at his inability to settle down. Clooney, more than any other Hollywood A-lister, is famous for his nomadic and free-spirited lifestyle, and the emotional honesty he brings to Ryan Bingham makes this film feel like a brief glimpse inside Clooney’s own soul.
Ryan Bingham (Clooney) is a suave and sophisticated nomad. He lives 10,000 feet ‘up in the air’ and he is as uncomfortable on the ground, staying in one place, as most other people are during take-off. Ryan’s job (he fires people for a living) means that he travels for around 362 days every year. He has a lavish selection of travelling accessories, but his apartment looks more like a hospital room than a home.
But Ryan likes it this way. He is constantly surrounded by people who don’t bother him with their emotional baggage (they are too busy with their physical baggage); he can enjoy fleeting romances with the beautiful Alex (Farmiga) and devour complimentary buffet meals ad infinitum; and he even has a life goal… if he reaches 10 million airmiles he will get a plane named after him.
This contented existence is obliterated by the arrival of a feisty, headstrong college graduate, Natalie (Kendrick) who wants to increase the company’s efficiency by firing people over the Internet (via webcam) rather than sending Ryan and his peers to do it in person. Ryan protests on the basis that this is a cold and heartless way to perform a delicate act… but his real problem is the terrifying prospect of having to work in an office and lose his home in the sky.
Ryan is tasked with showing Natalie the ropes. Arriving at the airport with a cumbersome suitcase, we soon realise that Natalie is the ‘Donkey’ to Ryan’s ‘Shrek’; she is a needy and annoying hormonal adolescent with the backbone of a fifty-year-old spinster. But Ryan graciously shows her how to survive in his bewildering world of departure lounges and connecting flights, and eventually they begin to see eye to eye.
While this relationship provides some light-hearted, but genuine, humour, this really is a thoughtful film about the nomadic existence that so many people seem to lead in this fast-paced modern world. The prospect of having to settle down forces Ryan to consider his options, and he begins a more serious relationship with Alex. He also agrees to go to his sister’s wedding, and it is here that he realises a life filled with attachments and emotional baggage might not be such a hard life after all.
Jason Reitman has proved once again, after Thank You for Smoking and Juno, that he has a masterful eye for thought-provoking, fast-paced comedies. This film is infinitely superior to its US comedy cousin at this festival, The Men Who Stare At Goats. That film is insincere, cheap, and meaningless; Up In The Air works hard to achieve its funny moments, and they are all the more raucous and enjoyable for it.
Nobody other than George Clooney could have played this role. He is a modern-day Cary Grant, not just because of his looks and his demeanour, but because of the public’s constant fascination at his inability to settle down. Clooney, more than any other Hollywood A-lister, is famous for his nomadic and free-spirited lifestyle, and the emotional honesty he brings to Ryan Bingham makes this film feel like a brief glimpse inside Clooney’s own soul.
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