Up in the Air is a decent flight with an extremely rough landing

Rating: 7/10 (9 June 2010)

There is nothing pretty about the current economic crisis out here in the United States. For whatever the reason (and this will be a totally separate argument), most of your small and big businesses are dropping people like unwanted flies, and at a very dangerous rate. To find any sort of charm or humor in all this is extremely difficult, yet Up in the Air manages to loosely pull it off. This film is a charming little adult movie about a man's job and his unique lifestyle. The third film from Jason Reitman is entertaining; full of great acting, but like Juno stretches the running time just a bit much. Slicing a major portion of the movie aside, Up in the Air is fun to watch, and provides a lot of insight into today's cruel business world.
Up in the Air follows a businessman (George Clooney) whose job is to fly to different parts of the country, to different businesses to fire people when the actual bosses do not have the guts to do the job themselves. This sort of life requires cynicism and a lack of personal connection. But, his boss (Jason Bateman) hires a young and up-and-coming businesswoman (Anna Kendrick) that develops a way to fire people without all the flying. Before the new technique of terminating people takes place, Ryan takes Natalie on a tour of how his business life is. Along the way they run into a beautiful older woman (Vera Farmiga) that starts a casual relationship with Ryan. Based off of a novel by Walter Kirn, this movie's screenplay was written by the director as well, with some added touches by Sheldon Turner.
Jason Reitman's best ability as director is pulling excellent performances out of his cast. Whether the roles are small or large, every actor and actress did a fantastic job in this movie; and let's not forget the sympathetic performances of the people that were fired in real-life. George Clooney once again shines in his new-school Cary Grant-like performance as a man with a lot of vulnerability, but hides it in his charm, suave cockiness, and winning smile. Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick are strong female leads that went toe-to-toe with Clooney and did not disappoint. Kendrick, being so young, was the more impressive of the performances by remaining very likable in spite of her tough personality. Keep an eye out on J.K. Simmons for his fantastic few moments as a father of two getting fired.
In adult dramas like these, the writing is pivotal in propelling the acting performances and the realism of the entire piece. Bateman heads back to the typewriter after directing someone else's decent script with Juno. Just like in Thank You for Smoking, the plot was simple, but dwells much deeper into the motivations, mannerisms, actions, and reactions of all the characters involved. The dialogue was great, some of the conversations were slick and hilarious and not one work was put out of place. Up in the Air also has a share of great one-liners and monologues.
The directing of this movie was nothing special, but gets the job done. There are some wonderful shots of the cities featured and wonderful sights above the skies, but the directing is mostly focused on human emotions and pacing of the conversations and revelations. In the first two-thirds of the movie, it works out well. The movie paces itself nicely, and was entertaining, even when some scenes were heartbreaking (Firing someone always leads to emotional moments). And then came the final third.
Falling into the trap of most decent movies that have trouble wrapping up (Cast Away being my personal favorite example), Up in the Air begins to stumble in the later scenes when Ryan tries patching up old wounds. These elongated scenes slowed the pace a bit, lost its clever bite, and even contradicted itself a little in terms of content. When the career didn't become the focus of the movie, it became a bit jarring and stale. Then by the time the plot shifts back to the career, it becomes very rushed, and the ending appears right around the corner. The resolutions fly in out of nowhere and before you know it, the credits are rolling. Some of this might be exaggeration, but in a movie where dialogue runs rampant and action is limited, off-screen major events was not expected.
Bottom Line: Up in the Air was fun, entertaining, lightweight dramedy for the adults. That is, until the final third when the movie shifts a little, and then bolts towards the exit. The only blame for this change of pace was the editing team and the writer—which happens to be the director. Movies do not have to run two hours, excellent 90-minute movies can indeed occur (Up, the best movie in 2009, was a mere 96 minutes). If Up in the Air had paced itself to be such a length, it would have been a much better film, supported by slick dialogue and fantastic acting, with a hintage of subtle criticism and clever commentary on current events. Unfortunately, we have a misguided third act that was a fraction as good as the first two acts. Overall Up in the Air is a decent film, but nothing fantastic or Best Picture Nominee worthy.