Up in the Air, Not reallyThere. Review on Up in the Air Movie

I love George Clooney, pure eye-candy, but in my mind he always remains George Clooney and not the character he is supposed to be in any given movie. Mr Clooney has a deft, light touch that is charming and the roles he mostly plays suit his persona and no one has any complaints. Up in the Air is no exception and it appears like Clooney may be playing himself instead of the main character Ryan Bingham. However, that is not a huge problem in this particular film since Bingham and George are doppelgangers, and there may well be shades of Mr. Clooney’s own life that are on display here, given how much we know about his personal life and his deft, light touch with women!

The movie revolves around Bingham who loves his job. That tells us a lot about how we should view Bingham since by any standards he has the worst job in the world – flying around the country, visiting corporations like a hired assassin and firing people on their behalf. The movie is interspersed at regular intervals with these death knell interviews which are particularly compelling given their topicality in today’s recession ridden America. The only real performances in this movie come from these unknown actors as they react to the news of getting fired. Bingham has a practiced style of detached empathy which he tries to instill in the genX female employee he is forced to train on the road. That’s his punishment from his boss for having such a bad attitude about this young eager beaver’s efforts to introduce modern technology like video conferencing that could result in the permanent grounding of Bingham and the other flying henchmen. To George this is a threat to his very existence since he only lives to fly, his only home is whichever hotel room he happens to be in that night and whose only real ambition is to hit a certain number of frequent flyer miles.

So far so good, and we enjoy Clooney’s slickness and his traveling which he has down to a science. We’re also okay with the female version of himself who he picks up along the way and now there are two of them getting off on each other and the perks of corporate travel together. Then, the movie seems to suddenly develop a psychological problem and we’re exposed to Bingham’s human side and it’s embarrassing to watch him turn on us like that. There’s his family angle with the requisite angry siblings, a wedding replete with a schmaltzy dance and oh my God, looks like we’re heading the Hollywood happy ending way. But that is not to be. The Director, Jason Reitman has a sudden attack of conscience somewhere in the second half, and decides not to sell his soul. He tries to return the movie to hits original wicked self and even gives us a twist that is actually the knife twisting in George’s heart. But by now, we’re mad at Bingham/George for turning human and ruining an otherwise enjoyable film and we don’t care if he suffers from a broken heart, or even if he lives at all.

All in all a contradictory sort of film that is better in the dissecting rather than the viewing. Oscar material - certainly not unless there was a category for who looks best in a suit. In that case, George/Bingham would certainly get my vote.