Up In The Air is the latest film from Jason Reitman the director best known for his films Juno and Thank You for Smoking. Thank You for Smoking was fantastic-wonderfully blending dark humour within a simple story told exceptionally well. I liked both films but felt that Juno was trying way too hard to label itself within the 'indie flick' category despite its all star cast and its $7 million budget. I could go on for an inordinate period of text about why I dislike Juno, but I won't do that because there are more pressing matters at hand!
However Reitman is not really the reason that I went to see this film. I went so I could have the pleasure of watching George Clooney being the greatest man on the planet for 120 minutes. I don't think that there is anybody on the planet who dislikes him, if I met someone who did I would go out of my way to not know them.
The film's plot revolves around Clooney's character who works for a firm that sends their executives around the country to fire people for other companies. The 'Credit Crunch' themes are fairly obvious to everyone but this does not detract too much from the film. Clooney's character Ryan Bingham is a very entertaining and surprisingly complex character. Reitman has a fantasitc ability as a director to make you feel priviliged in entering and sharing the world of a very private and individual (dare I say querky) character. Bingham is charming, witty and professional but he simply does not like people and enjoys spending almost all of his life 'up in the air' flying from country to country. His world comes crashing to pieces when a young executive re-imagines methods for firing people to reduce transportation costs. The rest of the film follows the fairly familiar narrative progression of two characters set in their ways learning from each others positive and negative characteristics and becoming arguably 'better' or at least better informed people as a result. This may sound overly familiar but Reitman manages to pull off this familiar narrative arc with humour, emotion and maturity. Moments in the film were genuinely very touching and it was wonderful to see such a high profile film adopting a fairly unconventional ending with a lack of closure resulting in a distinctly melancholy statement from the protagonist.
Next to his performance in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? I think Clooney provides the performance of his career as Bingham. His character is both appealing, funny, charming and heart-tuggingly tragic. A highlight to look out for in the film is a scene where he is dancing around with his mistress singing along very enthusiastically to 'bust a move'-cinematic gold. Watch out for another fantastic moment with Danny McBride reading The Velveteen Rabbit-too funny.
I would massively recommend this film for all film tastes. It manages to incorporate the 'indie' charm of Juno with the slick, dark sense of humour contained in Thank You for Smoking. I chuckled and smiled through most of the film as well as being stunned into nervous silence with the surprising levels of emotional power this film manages to reach. I would like to write more on this film but frankly I think you should just go and see it-its quality speaks for itself. This is definitely Reitman's best film to date and I am definitely looking forward to his upcoming projects.
However Reitman is not really the reason that I went to see this film. I went so I could have the pleasure of watching George Clooney being the greatest man on the planet for 120 minutes. I don't think that there is anybody on the planet who dislikes him, if I met someone who did I would go out of my way to not know them.
The film's plot revolves around Clooney's character who works for a firm that sends their executives around the country to fire people for other companies. The 'Credit Crunch' themes are fairly obvious to everyone but this does not detract too much from the film. Clooney's character Ryan Bingham is a very entertaining and surprisingly complex character. Reitman has a fantasitc ability as a director to make you feel priviliged in entering and sharing the world of a very private and individual (dare I say querky) character. Bingham is charming, witty and professional but he simply does not like people and enjoys spending almost all of his life 'up in the air' flying from country to country. His world comes crashing to pieces when a young executive re-imagines methods for firing people to reduce transportation costs. The rest of the film follows the fairly familiar narrative progression of two characters set in their ways learning from each others positive and negative characteristics and becoming arguably 'better' or at least better informed people as a result. This may sound overly familiar but Reitman manages to pull off this familiar narrative arc with humour, emotion and maturity. Moments in the film were genuinely very touching and it was wonderful to see such a high profile film adopting a fairly unconventional ending with a lack of closure resulting in a distinctly melancholy statement from the protagonist.
Next to his performance in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? I think Clooney provides the performance of his career as Bingham. His character is both appealing, funny, charming and heart-tuggingly tragic. A highlight to look out for in the film is a scene where he is dancing around with his mistress singing along very enthusiastically to 'bust a move'-cinematic gold. Watch out for another fantastic moment with Danny McBride reading The Velveteen Rabbit-too funny.
I would massively recommend this film for all film tastes. It manages to incorporate the 'indie' charm of Juno with the slick, dark sense of humour contained in Thank You for Smoking. I chuckled and smiled through most of the film as well as being stunned into nervous silence with the surprising levels of emotional power this film manages to reach. I would like to write more on this film but frankly I think you should just go and see it-its quality speaks for itself. This is definitely Reitman's best film to date and I am definitely looking forward to his upcoming projects.
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