A Story Well-Told

Rating: 10/10 (12 April 2010)

Think you've got plenty of frequent flyer miles? Wait until you meet Ryan Bingham (George Clooney, BURN AFTER READING), a guy who flies almost nonstop. It's his job that gets him Up in the Air all the time. He travels around the States firing people as humanely as he can. Trouble is, though, is that this job makes him the most detached person alive. No family ties. Not married. No kids. Not even a real home anywhere. Ryan lives out of his carry-ons and knows how to move through airports like grease through a goose.
But things are about to change. His boss Craig (Jason Bateman, SMOKIN' ACES) just hired a hot-shot who's idea to tele-fire people remotely (via computer) has the potential to ground Ryan. But he's not giving up without a fight. This new up-and-comer named Natalie (Anna Kendrick) has a few thins to learn. So Ryan takes her on the road with him to show her why firing face-to-face has its merits.
Paralleling Ryan is the female version of him; a woman named Alex (Vera Farmiga, THE DEPARTED) who so mirrors his sentiments that they seemed destined for one another. Sexual sparks fly but their jobs (and flights) keep them apart more often than not. Which initially seems fine for both of them.
As Ryan shows hot-shot Natalie the ropes of how-to and how-not-to fire someone, we learn that Natalie is more brittle than previously believed. A broken relationship with a boyfriend sends her reeling, much to the confusion of Ryan who's never had a serious relationship in his life. "Everything I own can fit in this backpack. Even my relationships." But as Ryan sees his job changing, he also sees his life moving in a different direction. He's headed for a three-way fulcrum. The first is that he might actually need someone. And as he begins to see that not everything fits so neatly into his backpack, his feelings for Alex change his views. The second is that he has a family member who's about to get married, and he finds that seeing a wedding and how people actually enjoy needing one another changes his outlook. And finally we get to his frequent flyer miles. He's about to hit a milestone that only a handful of other people have made it to. Millions upon millions of miles. And as the realization that he's collected all of these miles alone comes to him, he finds that maybe, just maybe, he needs to make a connection ...not a connecting flight but an actual human connection.
It is here that I have to end my summation of the movie and simply say that this isn't going to be some formulaic film where a person finds what they need and everyone lives happily ever after. Life just isn't that cleanly laid out. I applaud writer/director Jason Reitman for having the gumption to not take the road most traveled. Although I saw what was coming for Ryan after he decided to make a change, the impact of it astounded me. Clooney did a great job making us care for a man that we really shouldn't care for. We want to give him a shot at a normal life, but when that option is snatched away, we feel exactly the same way Ryan does: cheated. Even though he's been a complete butthead most of his life.
This is a story with no special effects. No tricks. And it pulls no punches. It's just a great story well-told. I loved it.