| Based on the novel by Walter Kirn, Up in the Air with George Clooney starring as company's downsizing expert Ryan Bingham features the complexity of interpersonal relationships.
Mr Bingham is employed to help ease the downsizing of long-term employees around the United States. He takes his responsibilities very seriously and is excited about the 290 days he is going to spend away. Yet, within this period of time his world is turned upside down. Along the way, both he and his college graduate colleague Natalie played brilliantly by Anna Kendrick understand that they lack a great many crucial things in their lives and have to learn how to turn into better people.
Clooney's Mr Bingham is a lonely businessman whose personal life is made up by random dates with beautiful women at many airports where he is a regular passenger. His wallet is full of plastic cards from airlines that accumulate his mileage, hotel status perk cards which let him avoid meeting displeased passengers and go straight to the front, and countless room keys that never seem to be thrown out and make him constantly try more than one key before finally letting him in. Uninvolved in the life of family and relatives, Ryan is the brother who exisits somewhere but cannot give a shoulder to cry on. His job has become his new family. He reckons if he should, or really wants to, go to his sister's wedding – the little girl whose life he should have been involved with after the death of their dad.
The story includes a lot of plot and sequences that need to be viewed fresh to have a full understanding of the film. What you might initially consider a witty comedy about a self-important guy who eventually becomes a pleasant person full of heart and emotion is actually a mix of comedy and drama.
Clooney performs brilliantly and makes his character very true-to-life. He is good at playing both the supercilious workaholic obsessed by his career and the vulnerable romantic able to demonstrate genuine feelings of love and sympathy to people around. The changes he undergoes throughout the film are interesting to trace and make you think about the genuine values of human life. |
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