Up in the Air (2009)

There’s a great episode of King Of The Hill in which pest-control specialist Dale Gribble finds his work is poisoning his health. Forced to take an office job, he discovers that he has a hidden talent: firing people. As the star of director Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, George Clooney also demonstrates a proficiency as a professional exterminator for the human workforce.

Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, whose job is to fly from city to city, travel to businesses, and fire people. He handles the face-to-face layoffs and terminations for bosses — “pussies” as Bingham accurately describes them — who don’t want to face the often emotional responses of the newly unemployed. Reitman depicts quite a few of these moments from a wide variety of people, expressing shock, fear, outrage, and more than a few bitter tears and words. In our current economic circumstances, these scenes are relatable to audiences. I’ve been laid off from a company before in a similar manner, with the news and severance packet delivered by a team of people I’d never seen before, so this was uncomfortably familiar territory.

Ryan, meanwhile, is clearly a “have” in the world of newly fired “have-nots.” He’s racked up so many frequent flyer miles that ticket agents and airline club concierges are trained to address him by name. He spent 323 days on the road last year, which means, he laments, “43 miserable days at home” in his sterile, nearly empty apartment in Omaha, Nebraska. If you’ve ever been there, then you’ll immediately know why Ryan stays on the road.

When he meets fellow frequent flyer Alex (Vera Farmiga) in an airport lounge, their mutual attraction is based more on the plastic they carry than any personal details of their respective lives — although their sexual chemistry seems pretty obvious, as well. “Think of me as yourself, with a vagina,” Alex tells him. They’re both free spirits of the corporate air, touching the ground only when they really have to.

Traveling light is Ryan’s philosophy of life; he likes the efficiency of living from a BlackBerry and a single carry-on suitcase. He extends this philosophy as an occasional motivational speaker, using a backpack as a metaphor for all the burdens people carry in their lives. Further, he treads lightly regarding family matters as well; he has barely any connection to his sisters Kara (Amy Morton) and Julie (Melanie Lynskey), the latter of whom is getting married, forcing Ryan to carry an oversized photo of the future marrieds all over the country and take photos of it in front of different places as a virtual tour. Ryan has no desire to ever get married or have kids — a shocking concept to Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), a too-young professional woman who has both her career and her personal life carefully planned out.

Natalie’s methodical mind and ideas have impressed Ryan’s boss, Craig (Jason Bateman), who wants to implement her cost-saving measures of firing people remotely via computer screen. Ryan is appalled not just by this impersonal style in what is already a delicate (yet booming) business, but also by the thought that he’ll be pulled off the road, out of his airy element, and forced to actually settle in one place for a while — an image of “home” that is clearly alien to him. Ryan takes Natalie on the road, so she can learn the advantages, both personal and professional, of traveling from city to city and helping people face-to-face in making the transition to unemployment as painless as possible.

This is one terrific movie, with lots of funny moments and lines that all arise from honest action and reaction, not manufactured shtick. For example, though Alex is only in her thirties, Natalie condescendingly acknowledges the great strides “women of your generation” made. And George Clooney gets big laughs in the scene merely by sitting back and grinning with his million-watt smile.

In fact, the most implausible element of this film may be George Clooney himself. Good-looking, self-effacingly funny, and utterly charming…who wouldn’t like to be fired by him? He’s so damn smooth in everything he does, and this film is yet another career highlight. We’ve seen him excel in dramas such as Michael Clayton and Syriana, and he’s just as adept with comedic turns in Burn After Reading and The Men Who Stare At Goats. Here, he brings seriousness and laughter together in equal and believable measures, aided by the terrific supporting performances of Vera Farmiga (at her sexiest) and Anna Kendrick, who’s both cute and compelling once her business-minded demeanor starts to crack.

Director and co-scriptwriter Jason Reitman is to be commended for crafting such an amusing yet realistic comedy-drama. Following in his father’s footsteps — Ivan Reitman, co-producer of Up in the Air, directed such comedy classics as Stripes and Ghostbusters — Jason gets better with each film he makes, and this one is, like his previous film Juno, both a crowd-pleaser and a worthy contender for awards and critic’s best-of-the-year lists.

While you won’t be getting any frequent flyer miles, Up in the Air is definitely a trip worth taking.

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