Up In The Air

The rise of Jason Reitman has been a swift one indeed. Since his sparkling feature film directorial debut four years ago with his self-penned corporate comedy Thank You For Smoking the promise of this man’s future career has bordered on the exhilarating. Thus, with the release of his third film Up In The Air it appears that the promises of his previous efforts, including his Academy Award nominated outing Juno, have been truly upheld continuing Reitman’s reign as one of the best new directors.

Up In The Air, based on the book by Walter Kirn, tells the story of Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) a ‘career transition specialist’ who is hired to travel around America firing people as their employers do not have the nerve to do it themselves. In his happy existence as the perpetual loner his only goal is to amass enough air miles so that a plane in the American Airways fleet will be named after him. However, on his travels he meets fellow loner Alex (Vera Farminga) who he engages in a casual sexual relationship with whenever they are in the same city on business. Alongside this is the threat that he may be forever grounded by his employers after the revolutionary ideas in terminating people via the internet by new employee Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick).

With his now amazing acting track-record it almost goes without saying that George Clooney gives a truly moving portrayal of this lonely man who slowly becomes undone as the film progresses. While watching this there really were glimpses of actors of the Hollywood Golden Age which subtly flickered onto the screen and then disappeared as quickly as they arrived, perhaps hinting at the long career still left in him. In order to see this close attention really must be paid to his eyes which truly say all that he needs to.

This coupled with the comedic timing amongst the three principle characters helps to gain the full potential from the amazing screenplay written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner, which will undoubtedly turn a few heads this awards season. Also attracting attention is Anna Kendrick, who most will recognise as having a supporting role in the Twilight franchise, who so nearly steals the film from Clooney in her role as the young upstart of an executive who is disillusioned by the feminist dream of maintaining a successful business life with the prospect of finding the right man. The scenes where she plays off Clooney are truly the comedic highlights of the film, with the best part possibly being where she breaks down in a hotel lobby.

With great acting performances and a truly funny script that can also mix in touching moments of human drama there was no doubt that Up In The Air would be a favourite in the current awards season, a well deserved position since films like this really are a rarity in modern cinema.

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