Strong performances, likable script, lack of stereotyping

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2009)

As firer-for-hire Ryan Bingham, George Clooney is perfectly cast in Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, and the script, based on a novel by Walter Kim, crackles with wit and maturity. Only a predictable final twenty minutes or so prevents the movie from being a bittersweet classic.
Ryan is what you call a real frequent flyer; he's the proud owner of millions of miles in the air and scores of elite-status cards and chotchkies. His company sends him to other companies for the sole purpose of letting go staff, rather than having the senior staff do it. (Wussies.) Anyway, it pays very well, but Ryan's on the road over 250 days a year. But he gets star treatment literally everywhere, so it all works out okay.
However, Ryan's boss (played by an oily Jason Bateman) wants to try something a little different. A newcomer to the team, Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), has the bright idea of firing people remotely. This way road warriors like Ryan could stay at home, thus saving the company travel expenses. Bateman likes it, Clooney's Ryan does not – and why would he? He'd lose all the perks of traveling, probably lose a lot of salary, and have to deal with real life for a change. He pitches enough of a fit that boss Bateman sends him back on the road – with Natalie. You know, to show her the ropes.
Which actually brings us to one of the more poignant parts of the film. We see Ryan lowering the boom on senior management and junior staffers alike, and their reactions (from acting calmly to pouring bleach in the coffee). Reitman actually brought in people who had just lost their jobs, so their reactions are more are less genuine (they were instructed to react either as they actually did when informed of losing their jobs or how they wish they had reacted). The theme couldn't be more timely, with the American economy doing so poorly and so many people out of work. Ryan has to deliver the news professionally and implacably, something that the straightlaced Natalie cannot always do.
A secondary thread has to do with Ryan's relationships, those with his family and those with, well, other people in general. His sister is getting married, but he's so self-absorbed that he can't find time to care much about it. Then Ryan meets cute with a fellow traveler in an airport bar (Vera Farmiga) and falls in lust with what he sees as a kindred spirit.
That's another important theme here, really: the perceived isolation in which Ryan finds himself. Sure, he's surrounded by people all the time, but he has intentionally never pursued any kind of meaningful relationship, choosing instead to put more stock in the elite status that million-mile travelers get.
You might think that because Natalie is on the road with Ryan, the two will inevitably hook up. But this is a more-mature look at relationships than Hollywood is used to churning out. Typically, you'd expect physical sparks to fly, because Clooney is Clooney and age differences mean little in Hollywood if we're talking an older man and a younger woman. But both Kendrick and Clooney are lights-out amazing; Kendrick in particular is tremendously effective as the inexperienced go-getter. Natalie is certainly not perfect, but she's also not a one-dimension prude, either. In fact, the scenes in which she explains herself – whether it's to a group of downsizers or to Ryan himself – are where the picture truly shines. Kendrick's artful delivery evokes both sympathy and envy for Natalie, who's in her situation of her own volition and accord.
And you might also think that because Alex (Farmiga) and Ryan meet on the road and have some fun that their relationship will immediately dissolve into a pool of boring. It's not so. Farmiga – a largely unknown quantity to me – was fantastic, playing Alex neither as another conquest for the Ryan Express nor as the kind of woman who will settle down with someone forever and ever. In fact, she's more than a match for Clooney in the charm department.
The movie loses its way, slightly, near the end, when a twist arrives with as little subtlety as possible. You'll probably be able to spot the plot change from a mile away. That's about the only thing that keeps this from being a superb movie, a sagging denouement, but certainly the three standout performances are nothing to be sneezed at.