Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick

Director: Jason Reitman

Screenplay: Jason Reitman

Running time: 1 hr 49 mins

Genre: Drama



CRITIQUE:


In the recent Hollywood cinematic landscape filled with commercialist gunk, it proves hard to evade the relentless (and pointless) sequel-making (yes, that’s you Saw and Transformers), ripping offs (well hello, Avatar), and even spin-offs (that’s you, Wolverine), chugging from one uninspired script to another in the intention of robbing your pockets off whilst studio bosses light up their Cuban cigars and clink their Jack Daniels. It’s a revitalising surprise, then, that once in a while, braving through the whippersnappers, a film of such substance and value emerge from the dream factory. This is Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, an incredibly good film that may now be considered a modern American classic. This deceptively clear-cut, bracingly smart and slyly crafted comedy-satire that address the contemporary corporate-driven world has enough mixture of resonance, wits and composure without ever insulting our emotional intelligence. And to mention that it has George Clooney as the film’s central protagonist should not hinder this as a typical vehicle to another suave and besuited Clooney typecast. In fact, Clooney is so wondrous in the role that he seems to be born to play the corporate assassin, and also baring a vulnerability this actor rarely portrays.


He plays Jack Bingham, all sleek charisma, sharp suits, droll speechifying and no hint of compassion as he travels around America, hired by cowardly bosses to downsize their employees. Beneath the charm, he’s an atrociously cold-blooded character, whose ultimate ambition is to clock-up a million airmiles, collect granite-made elite cards, take comfort in business class flights, live around airports and bed women effortlessly without having to call them back the next day. It’s a central conceit so terrifically pulled off, and the chemistry between Clooney and the sassy and sophisticated Vera Farmiga is effortless. One of the best scenes here is Clooney’s Bingham and Farmiga’s Alex swapping their airmile cards, turning the pick-a-date-in-a-bar around its head. And just when it becomes a rom-com all of a sudden, Reitman sidesteps this by introducing Anna Kendrick’s Natalie Keener, a young, hotshot college graduate poised to introduce a new firing system by using web-video devices, meaning totally economising their company, with Bingham’s job on the line. It becomes a battle of wits – until subtly, the screenplay introduces a heart. Kendrick’s vibrant performance here as the lovelorn Keener softens Bingham’s sharp edges, showing character cracks as the film progress, that when Bingham returns back to a family wedding, he understands what he’s been missing. Cue a widely clichéd dash-to-the-airport sequence common to most romantic comedies, Reitman once again surprises us by wringing pathos and the angst of loneliness in double swords. He cuts the central protagonist wide open, as Clooney’s Bingham stands at the middle of the airport, looking up to a hundred destinations. It’s a melancholic, poignant shot of a man who is everywhere yet nowhere at the same time.


VERDICT:

This may be 'Unbearable Lightness of Being' for the modern corporate age, but consider this a contemporary American classic. Reitman crafts here a slick, glossy satire-comedy about the slickness and glossiness of high-flyers, with a veneer that conceals a cautionary tale of a man untethered to any human relationship. A smart, sobering experience.



RATING: A