Up In The Air never comes down

Rating: 8/10 (29 April 2014)

Oh Jason Reitman, how do I convey my love for you. Film after film you impress me with your ability to take an interesting premise and turn it into a witty,well written film with characters that jump right out at you. Up In The Air is no different. The film follows Ryan Bingham (played by George Clooney), a corporate downsizing expert whose cherishes his home up in the air. His job requires him to be in flight, circling the world, constantly almost all year round, all to sit in a room and fire people because company heads 'don't have the balls to do it themselves'. His dream is even to reach 'one million miles', allowing him to be one of the select number of people to meet the captain and have his name on the side of a plane. His life revolves around constant travel, never slowing down, even when he meets a woman who could be his soul mate, the love of his life, Alex Gorman(played by Vera Farmiga)is his muse and he and her agree to make the relationship simply, in Ryan's words, 'Casual'
The film blends a narrative of constant twists and turns, referring back to things you didn't think mattered and turning them into main plot points. The film shows a constant love and care for everyone of its characters, giving them there own personalities, free of the plot and free to be more that just simple plot devices. The film has that natural progression that all of Reitmans films have, the film seems to just go where the wind takes it and you are simply a passing person who happens to witness these events.
The conclusion is again, totally Reitman. Its not a complete happy ending, the characters do end up scarred with guilt or pain and you feel for them but your at least happy they found something again to an ending for their tale and they are now wiser and know a little more than they did before. Its good to see a film that doesn't end happy or sad or ambiguous its just an ending of a tale, not the end of the characters.