'Up in the air' sweeps across America and fleets away

Rating: 6/10 (29 January 2010)

Jason Reitman is a wonderful director and one of my favorites. He can take on the most serious of issues and turn it around to make us smile and enjoy a movie about the issue without deviating away from reality. He has managed this with Juno and one should appreciate the morals of his story telling that however flawed the characters of his movie are from the outside for the society, there is simmering humanity in all of them. Jason has brought the same style of storytelling back in his latest 'Up in the Air'.
'Up in the Air' is about Ryan Bigham played by George Clooney, who is a downsizing expert, which in today's corporate job scenario means Satan's messenger. His job is to travel around the country to various corporate offices firing workers on behalf of their employers. He lives a life in a suitcase and travels across the country for almost the entire year. Due to which he has a fractured relationship with his near ones which in this case are his sisters. But he cherishes his life away from home and has a playful time flying in the air counting his record touching flying hours across United States.
As opposite to leading a lonely life, he actually relishes the idea of meeting new people and has a transnational love affair with a fellow frequent flier 'Alex' played by Vera Farmiga.
Things start to unravel when his company hires a rookie with an innovative idea 'Natalie', who succeeds in selling her idea of firing people across the country through web conference calls. Anna Kendrick's 'Natalie' comes out as arrogant and she is of the opinion that there is no humane way of firing someone hence the company should not bother about the human factor about their jobs. This new idea becomes a confrontational point between the Company Boss Jason Bateman along with Natalie and Ryan who now is assigned to take Natalie on a cross country tour displaying her company's job profile i.e. firing other employees. How the experience of their jobs affects these characters is what forms the rest of movie. Well Almost!
'Up in the Air' starts well and has an innovative way of telling stories. His usual first character narration is solidly given by Mr. Clooney, but the topical issue of corporate downsizing needed a touch of reality which Jason provides by casting real employees who have lost their job during the economic meltdown. Viewers are able to feel the eventual guilt in the characters eyes about their job profile.
But the movie at its rear end loses its credibility and drifts away from the central topic to focus on Ryan's personal story. His sudden about turn at the airport to go at his sister's wedding along with a date with Alex is filmed with excruciating detail that covers third-fourth of the movie's final reel. The movie fails to lift itself away from a sudden Romantic comedy drift to end the movie with a certain incomplete agenda. Jason fails to conclude anything substantial from his story other than the conclusion of the movie's romantic track, which also shows some shocking predictable sequence.
'Up in the Air' can be said to be Mr. Reitman's most real movie to date after the dark and sarcastic 'Thank You for smoking' and the sugary coated 'Juno'. But it fails to elevate itself to be a movie of any social importance.