"Up in the Air" -- a great, and sometimes brutal, film!

Rating: 9/10 (1 January 2010)

Director Jason Reitman's new film "Up in the Air" is a favorite for Oscars, and it is great film.
It stars George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, who works for a business firm where he is sent around the country to fire people from their jobs. His job is his life. He spends almost all the days of the year constantly travelling by plane. He has become so comfortable with traveling that he hates to be home at his apartment. His real home is up in the air in an airplane.
Bingham's job certainly is not for the faint of heart. He sits face to face with people he has never met and tells them that they no longer have a job. Bingham's job is not to provide sympathy for the person, but to provide some kind of hope so their process of leaving the company goes smoothly. Bingham is a master at his art, staying calm and smooth even when the people he is firing become hostile.
However, Bingham's own job becomes at stake when a young, vibrant Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), a recent Cornell graduate, starts at the firm and introduces a new technology which would enable people like Bingham to fire people over the computer, making the already brutal job more impersonal but also more cost efficient. This now threaten's Bingham's life-style of travelling the country almost every day of the year. The thought of living at home makes him sick and uneasy. But before this new system is put into place, Bingham is forced to travel with Keener across the country, showing her the ropes of how to fire people.
It is a very funny, although also at times a very brutal film. Filled with cruel irony -- some funny, some sad. Reitman's film works not only as a character study, but also as a satire of America's poor economic state.
But the success of the film really does rely on George Clooney's wonderful, vulnerable performance playing the lonely, empty character of Bingham. Bingham discovers how truly empty and devoid of value his life really is. His job requires him to be emotionally cold, and with his constant travel and lack of any real relationships, his life is now emotionally cold and empty as well.
Along the way, Bingham also develops a relationship with a middle-aged, frequently travelling business woman named Alex (Vera Farmiga), both sharing the life of constant travel away from home. With Alex, Bingham finally starts to open up emotionally, as he seeks some kind of relationship that his life has been lacking.
Ultimately, "Up in the Air" is about finding value and strength through the relationships we form with people. It is a brutal world out there, and we need people with us to get through it sometimes.
Furthermore, I truly am a fan of Reitman now. "Thank You For Smoking" was a fantastic, hilarious satire and "Juno" was a very fun, sweet coming of age film. Neither quite reached greatness, but I think now with "Up in the Air" Reitman has made his first truly great film.
Now is this quite a masterpiece? No, not quite. I did have some problems with the ending and there were a few moments that I completely predicted near the end. In addition, some moments felt a little clichéd. However, overall this is a great film and should not be missed. It is undoubtedly one of the best films of the year.