Paramount Pictures | 2009 | 109 mins. | Rated R
There was a time, not that long ago when flying was an extravagance; only the wealthy could afford to do it regularly, and only corporate CEO’s regularly took business trips across the country and beyond. Now, casual flyers might board a plane once or twice a year for vacation, and many others criss-cross the world on plan after plane for business reasons. Most probably consider anyone who takes five or six flights a year a frequent flyer, but Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air takes the idea of the frequent flyer to a new level, not just as a mode of transport, but as a lifestyle.
George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man whose job him to spend most of his life flying from one place to another, so he’s up in an airplane much of the time. He believes he enjoys his unsettled life. He has no wife, children or girlfriend, and no real home except an apartment he hardly visits. When he does visit the apartment for the two days a month he’s home, Ryan is chomping at the bit to get going again. Employed by a company that is sub-contracted to essentially fire the employees of other companies in order to minimize risk and liability; the more the economy suffers, the more corporations downsize, and the more the company Bingham works for thrives. Bingham is a man who splits his time between pink slips and boarding passes, lay-off’s and lay-over’s. It’s a job which allows him to ignore the responsibilities and attachments so often associated with growing up, or older. He’s efficient, yet sensitive to the nature of his work.
Bingham’s boss (Jason Bateman) decides to take the advice of a new, young, female executive with the company, Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), and pull all the company’s agents off the road to do their firing via a new computer software program. This means Ryan won’t have fly anymore; realizing this will totally change his life, Ryan angrily yells at his boss, “Before you try to revolutionize my business, I’d like to know that you actually know my business!” Much to Bingham’s delight, the boss decides to send them both out on the road together so that Keener can get a feel for how a real-life firing goes, face to face with the individuals they’re firing.
Watching Ryan and Natalie come face to face with the people they’re firing connects with the current economic problems in the United States. It’s hard not to relate to each person’s anger and sadness, as they’re told their present career is over. The relationship between Keener and Bingham is interesting to watch, as she describes him as “old,” and tells Bingham he’s behaving like a child for his indifferent lack of commitment, yet she’s the driving force behind the idea of firing people by computer.
In the midst of all this, Ryan meet a woman he believes might be perfect for him. Alex Goran (Vera Farniga) is a frequent flyer, just as noncommittal, and just as concerned about “elite status.” She’s a woman, she says, he doesn’t have to worry about; they can meet here and there across the country as their travels permit, carry on their affair wherever, and never think about marriage. Or so it seems.
Bingham’s sister is getting married, and he needs to attend the wedding. While he’s there, unexpected issues come up, forcing Ryan to reconsider what he values most in life. Will he eventually stay in one place, and will he ever get married? Or will he get another job that takes him on the road? And what will happen to Keener and Alex? The ending is ambiguous, but somehow satisfying, due in large part to Clooney’s charismatic portrayal of a somewhat broken man
The transfer looks rather good, with the video rendered in the original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1. The colors are deep, with facial tones especially life-like and a light, natural film grain to provide nice texture. Object delineation is also fairly impressive, particularly if upscaled, with very little evidence of filtering and only some minor edge enhancement visible.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is clear and clean, which helps in a dialogue-driven movie like this one. There’s excellent bass response, too: deep, robust, and well controlled. The surrounds don’t see much action, except in helping with the ambient musical bloom, but that’s as one might expect.
We get a few special features:
• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Jason Reitman, Director of Photography Eric Steelberg, and First Assistant Director Jason Blumenfeld. Recorded while the film was still in limited release in all of 15 theaters, the participants discuss the picture’s opening title sequence, the changes in the script from its origins in a time of economic boom to a time of economic downturn, the use of real-life and recently-fired individuals in the picture, shooting the many aerial scenes in the film, small anecdotes from the set, filmmaking techniques of a fairly technical nature, the film’s sound mix and the challenge of shooting in and around airports, shooting locations, the film’s music and other assorted tidbits.
• Shadowplay: Before the Story (2:27) looks at the work of the company that created Thank you For Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air’s opening title sequences.
• Deleted Scenes (14:52) five in total, with optional director’s commentary.
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