"This is for
Up in the Air, right?"
"I hope so!"
"I'm just surprised it's in such a small cinema."
"
The Road's showing too..."
This is how a conversation went on Saturday night when I watched
Up in the Air at the Cameo in Edinburgh, the latest offering by Jason Reitman (also responsible for
Thank You for Smoking and
Juno). I'm not sure if it will slip through the commercial cracks a little because of John Hillcoat's highly-anticipated adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel, but I hope it doesn't.
Up in the Air is a film of our times.
Ryan Bingham spends almost all his time on the road (haha, see what I did there) - he travels around the country firing employees whose CEOs are too chicken to do the dirty work themselves. The opening scenes are of (I've read) non-actors reacting to being 'let go', real people who have lost their jobs recently. Ryan also has a sideline in 'motivational' speaking, where he encourages attendees to forget about commitment and putting down roots in any one place in order to succeed and be happy.
Ryan's love interest in Alex, played by Vera Farmiga. She's his mirror image ("I’m just like you, only with a vagina.") and they meet in a hotel bar, falling in lust over stacks of loyalty cards and air miles. There is a brilliant scene where they set up their laptops and check their schedules to arrange another rendezvous - now that's what I call pillow talk.
But there is trouble afoot. Natalie is a young up-and-comer in Ryan's firm with a new idea to increase efficiency, so the boss (Jason Bateman) wants to cut costs and eliminate staff travel expenses by instituting a video conference format for delivering the bad news to their clients' employees. Ryan, who spent 322 days in the air last year - which meant 43 miserable days at home in Omaha - is predictably horrified by the idea. Natalie ends up travelling with Ryan on some of his trips; they both have a point to prove.
Up in the Air is a fun film; it's not fun-brainless, it's witty and ironic, quick and ultimately quite poignant. The film is brilliantly cast and you can see why George Clooney is a superstar.
Watch it.
