Forgettable

Rating: 6/10 (23 September 2011)

Why was Up in the Air so widely acclaimed by critics and award ceremonies? It's the kind of movie that's so over-hyped that it makes me want to give it a lower score than it deserves. Because the fact is it's not a bad movie - it's just a decent one. I have nothing against Jason Reitman or his filmmaking style, but both Juno and Thank You For Smoking - flawed though they were - had freshness and originality that this one doesn't have. Reitman drew brilliant and surprising performances from Ellen Page and Aaron Eckhart; in Up in the Air, George Clooney plays the most stereotypically Clooney-ish character imaginable, and charming though he is, he doesn't seem to be putting enough effort into this. The writing is witty, the production is slick and the soundtrack is fantastic, but other than that it's a very mundane piece of cinema.