To know me is to fly me

Rating: 9/10 (17 June 2013)

Up in the Air is a simple movie of simple pleasures but exquisitely crafted and with a moving message on the power of real life to sway even the most ardent of individuals who are married to a job, call a first-class seat a home, and collect not a retirement nest egg but instead a pile of frequent flier miles to come to understand and appreciate the grounded life and all its ups and downs. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) has been racking up the frequent flier miles and spending almost 11 months out of the year on the road while working for a firm that sends him to fire employees at various enterprises and industries around the country. He's approaching the magical 10,000,000-mile milestone while living -- and loving -- life out of a suitcase and with nothing to tie him down, a philosophy he teaches at various seminars when he's not ruining people's lives as a career endeavor. During some downtime at an airport, he meets Alex (Vera Farmiga), a lady who shares his passion for elite status memberships, frequent flier miles, and all things first class. The two engage in a romantic relationship that's dependent on them meeting during their hectic traveling schedules, but their rendezvous are placed in jeopardy when Ryan's Chicago-based company hires young upstart Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) to transition the company from face-to-face firings to web-based terminations. With Ryan's comfortable existence suddenly thrown into chaos, can he find meaning on the ground, in a home, and in the arms of a woman rather than in first class, an airport terminal, and an impersonal hotel room?
Up in the Air is a film that's of a superficially facile feel but it subtly and, sometimes, not-so-subtly, weaves a more involved tale of a man that comes to realize that his perception of the world may not be as cut-and-dry as he believes and, just as pertinent to his life story, has led others to believe. When he's not serving as the bearer of bad news, Ryan delivers a unique brand of motivational speaking, using a backpack filled with the "baggage" of daily life -- people, places, and things -- as a metaphor for an anchor of sorts that ties a man down and keeps him from free roving and fulfilling a greater sense of purpose with an unburdened ease. Ryan practices what he preaches, but his burgeoning relationship with Alex, a sudden jolt to his routine that threatens his very existence as he knows it, and a return trip home to celebrate his sister's marriage allows him to see the world from a perspective that has long since been absent in his life, a vantage point that's no longer obscured by clouds and miles and cards and hotels but captured in a palpable heart and soul, flesh and blood, and perhaps even, ultimately, happiness and fulfillment. Of course, Ryan comes to learn that life isn't always what it seems to be from his perch high atop the world and from the comfort of an American Airlines first-class seat; those things which seem absent from his chaotically-structured existence -- namely hurt and confusion -- exist on the ground floor, but so too, he realizes, do love, honesty, devotion, meaning, morals, and integrity.
Up in the Air posits that while life without pain and with lofty but ultimately empty goals might for a time -- and maybe even a lifetime -- fulfill the voids left by the abandonment of a typically-structured lifestyle, it's the real-world ups and downs that truly satisfy a man. Much like a plane ascends and descends, moves from one location to the next, and rewards those faithful to it, Ryan comes to see that real life offers similar benefits, but ultimately does more to satisfy the soul than does life out of a suitcase, even if, like any given flight, it can be bumpy, delayed, uncomfortable, or maybe even crash and burn. Ryan comes to learn that life isn't about a membership card, frequent flier miles, or an elite traveler status; it's about doing what satisfies a deeper need, even if the pursuit of that satisfaction leads to painful hurts and dreams unrealized.
Director Jason Reitman (Juno), working off a script based on a novel penned by Walter Kirn, delivers a complete movie with themes and drama that come full circle and that offer both light entertainment and, upon further reflection, a deeper examination of life. Clooney's character is the real winner here in that he is readily identifiable as flawed, but not to an extreme that makes the character any lesser of a man. Clooney gives the character a charm and wit that allows the audience to go with the flow and even appreciate and come to admire a man that fires people for a living and lives to love only the number of miles he's racking up. Clooney's character is neither self-centered nor arrogant; he simply is who he is, does his job because he's good at it and not because he necessarily loves doing it, and has fallen into comfort with his lot in life. This is perhaps Clooney's best effort yet, his portrayal of a man that's of many pluses and minuses but nevertheless of sound reason and demeanor, a man that cherishes what he chooses but accepts a changing structure and learns of deeper meanings to life in a plausible manner and without any sort of pandering or phoniness, a credit both to the actor and to the script. Additionally, Vera Farmiga is wonderful in a complex part as the bringer of many of the film's developments, though Anna Kendrick's is a lesser but certainly not ordinary effort as a young woman in search of her place in the real world, a foil of sorts to Clooney's seasoned character who has distanced himself from all that Natalie seeks.