A Film About Valuing Relationships

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2016)

Up In The Air is directed by Jason Reitman, is based on the 2001 novel of the same name, written by Walter Kirn, and is so severely underrated.
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) travels more than three hundred days a year going to companies and firing the people within them. His job and his airborne lifestyle are jeopardised by Cornell graduate, Natalie (Anna Kendrick), who seeks to revolutionise the industry through replacing the face to face interactions of laying off people with a web chat system. Clooney is tasked with introducing Natalie with the nature of his work.
Bingham's life revolves around distance; his job, where he delivers the bad news but without connection or care for the consequences; his constant flying from airport to airport; his lack of a home or family or friends; his cynical dismantling of the idea of marriage; his fixation on flying miles; even his use of text messaging and avoidance of phone calls. There's something ironic in how he cherishes 'Loyalty' to frequent flyer clubs but not to individuals.
The bubbly, optimistic Anna Kendrick and the professional, pragmatic George Clooney have a great dynamic contrast and great chemistry too.
The melancholy soundtrack complements the superficial nature of his life. The acoustic guitar and the almost moaning quality of the singing can be forlorn and tragic. Alex (Vera Farmiga), Bingham's love interest, reveals to him in more ways than one that he may enjoy life with somebody else. The vibrant scenes of the sister's wedding have warm colours and a hand-held camera which brings excitement and fullness to a life contrasted with coldness.
In many of the scenes where Bingham was 'doing his job' Reitman had non-actors, who were recently laid off themselves, share their emotions on screen. One million Americans had lost their jobs the previous year - people treated distantly by companies they had devoted their lives, their loyalty to; people whom others relied on and who relied on others to survive these trying, turbulent periods in their lives.
This film is about the value we put upon our relationships. Through it, we see what it would be like if we '...decided to live hub to hub with nothing, with nobody' (Jason Reitman). It may seem thrilling at first. In reality, unlike what Bingham says in his seminars, we humans are not sharks who live in solitude. We survive on support, love and loyalty. Bingham begins to realise this as he explains to a man considering to follow a similar path, that the memories we cherish are often ones we have shared.