Biases up front:
For many of the same reasons most of us don’t care for leftist movie stars, I don’t like George Clooney, but after he publicly made fun of Charlton Heston’s Alzheimer’s, that was something altogether different. Unforgivable. An uncommonly cruel thing to do – even for a Hollywoodist — and it offered a disturbing glimpse into the mercenary assholery of a man willing to say anything for a place at the Hollywood Cool Kids’ Table. Clooney’s other problem is that unlike Jane Fonda and Sean Penn, he simply doesn’t possess the acting chops to transcend what a classless act he really is behind that Cary Grant-lite façade. Sure, Hollywood and the entertainment media adore him, but that’s because he’s the kind of guy who would make fun of Charlton Heston’s Alzheimer’s.
I do, however, like director Jason Reitman — quite a bit, in fact. “Thank You For Smoking” and “Juno” proved him to be a genuine talent, superb with actors and able to bring genuine warmth to the kind of stories lesser directors would distance us from with “quirk.” And as we saw with the subtle anti- abortion message in “Juno,” Reitman’s the rare filmmaker today who puts the quality of his story above the clichéd politically correct demands that bring down so many others … like, say, the wretched “Avatar.”
“Up in the Air” will be a big player in this year’s award season. Already nominated for six Golden Globes, it’s sure to be a best picture contender at the Oscars, as well. Unfortunately, director and co-writer Reitman’s character study (based on Walter Kirn’s novel) of Ryan Bingham, an emotionally detached corporate downsizing expert who travels the country breaking the news to people he’s never met that they’ve been fired, feels like it was crafted solely to appeal to those who vote to give awards away.
The entire feel of “Up in the Air” screams “Oscar Bait,” everything from the film’s monotone mood to the sterile, fluorescent, on-the-nose cinematography we’ve seen a hundred times before to portray both life in Corporate McAmerica and our protagonist’s empty “emotional landscape.” The film’s final moment is its own kind of cynical, self-conscious plea for a stamp of importance.
Reitman delivers plenty of slick but not enough heart in what’s basically Hal Ashby’s “Shampoo” set in bland motels and airports. Like Warren Beatty’s randy hairdresser, Ryan Bingham loves that his work brings him in contact with all kinds of female conquests and that the 300 days a year he spends travelling works as a free pass from any kind of emotional attachment, including one with his working class family back in Wisconsin.
Some spoilers ahead…
Predictably only one thing can happen, and predictably it does. Bingham finds himself falling for a female version of himself, the sexy but aloof Alex (Vera Farmiga) who’s even better than Bingham at the art of seduction. Bingham’s world is also thrown topsy-turvy when his boss (Jason Batemen — who, like the Michael Caine of the 1980s now appears in everything) calls him into the Omaha home office to break the news about a corporate cost-cutting plan that threatens Bingham’s entire lifestyle.
This story turn takes us into the best part of the film, a subplot that has Bingham dragging the pixie-ish Natalie (an outstanding Anna Kendrick) behind him on the road as he schools the recent college graduate on the grim and very personal realities of his profession. Bingham doesn’t give much of a damn about those whose lives he drops a piano on, but he does take a professional pride in his work as well as his unique abilities to navigate through airport security and work the many angles necessary to fulfill his sorry life-goal of accruing a record number of frequent flyer miles.
Which takes us to the only real emotional commitment the story makes: to those poor souls losing their jobs. In the film’s best scene, J.K. Simmons is superb running through the emotional spectrum of a dignified man who’s just had the rug pulled out from under him. The film’s other victims of downsizing — the wives and husbands and father and mothers — are presented mostly in montage but the impact remains, especially for those of us have been through such a thing. To his credit, and whether they’re losing their jobs or living in the wilds of Wisconsin, the many everyday people populating Reitman’s film are never played for laughs. This is a topical story, not a political one.
The two-plus hour story doesn’t move, it coasts, and in the third act drifts a little off course. The performances are universally good, especially Clooney who I can no longer categorize as an actor with movie star looks and television talent. His media sycophants are already wildly over-praising his performance, but there’s no arguing that he’s finally delivered one worthy of the big screen.
Throughout, there are certainly moments of charm and humor, but nothing that ever breaks a sweat thanks to an almost oppressive aloofness determined to keep us at arm’s length. Like its protagonist, “Up in the Air” is just too cool for school to ever make an effort to move us.
Though I was moved to watch “Shampoo” again.
Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.