Up in the Air (George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman) – In George Clooney’s third movie of the year (The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Fantastic Mr. Fox), he plays Ryan Bingham, an expert who works for the Omaha-based firm that fires, lays off, or otherwise terminates employees for companies too cowardly to do it themselves. He lives in airplanes, spending three-quarters of his year away from “home,” a non-descript apartment in Nebraska. He loves the road, living his life on American Airlines and in Hilton hotels, all in a quest to attain 10 million frequent flyer points and the perks and prestige that come with it. His relationships with people are limited to his few minutes giving bad news to people he doesn’t know in a compassionate way. He is isolated from his family (the wedding of his sister serves as a plot device in the film) and he has no friends.
Then one day, he meets a kindred spirit, Alex (Vera Farmiga of The Departed) who seemingly lives her life in the air, too. They engage in a “casual relationship” in airport hotels across the country. But they are committed to not getting serious … or are they? Meanwhile, his company is experimenting with an Internet approach to terminating employees that would pull Ryan and his counterparts off the road. So Ryan is assigned to train Natalie (played by the talented Anna Kendrick of the Twilight films) the ropes by his boss (played by the omnipresent Jason Bateman). What Ryan learns about his life from Natalie, Alex, and his family affects him in unexpected ways.
This starts as a very funny movie but turns serious and even poignant by the end. While I don’t think it’s worthy of the Oscar hype it’s generating for Best Film, there is no question that all of the performances are exceptional. Clooney seamlessly moves through all of his on-screen personae with a wink to his own real-life commitment never to get married. He is excellent but so are the two female leads. While all of the three could get nominated, I was not particularly impressed with director/actor/producer Jason Reitman’s heavy hand. Make sure you see this but don’t get your hopes set too high.