Up in the Air - “Grounded, With Its Head in the Clouds”

Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner
Directed by Jason Reitman


Jason Reitman makes films about modern people. There is a common theme to his work that focuses on the slight outsider, the one who is living life as we now begin to define it, making their own rules in the ever evolving landscape of American life. His third and latest film, Up in the Air, follows Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a man who fires people for a living. He lives city to city, flight to flight, frequent flier mile to frequent flier mile and enjoys every moment of it all. He is great at his job and resents the presence of a young upstart named Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) who is trying to restructure the way his business works. Along the way Ryan also meets Alex (Vera Farmiga), another perpetual plane-dweller who sparks a casual love interest and is a partner in getting laid over in any random city.

Timeliness seems essential to this film. Unlike many films which strive (and fail) to remain timeless, ‘Air’ is rather proud of steaking the ground and claiming itself as a reflection of the current economic and social climate of the U.S.A. Post-9/11 difficulties in air travel (and how to avoid them) are something that few films have addressed with such skill. When Natalie shows up at the airport planning to travel like a person would have ten or twenty years ago, she is scorned. Natalie also brings a major theme of modern technology to the table in pushing for webchat-enabled remote firings which would slash the company’s travel budget and Bingham’s hopes to stay airborne for the rest of his life. Bingham, who is oft-reminded of his being old in the film, represents a level of face to face interaction that can never be replaced. While the rest of the world might cling to their wife or kids for their few minutes away from a screen, he is happy to actually be surrounded by people all day (even if they have a fake level of courtesy or are complete strangers). As much as he may use his smart phone or laptop, he has no cubicle or office to be stuck in.

The first act really flies. The editing is quick paced and top notch as we are acquainted with the single serving life that Bingham leads. This sets up a recurring theme throughout the film where “baggage” is used both literally and metaphorically. He preaches this level of solitude in a traveling seminar where he tells you to not carry the weight of anything in life that can’t fit in your little backpack. Bingham only owns one set of clothes which come with him at all times in his durable, precisely laid out suitcase. He has estranged himself from family, shows no signs of having friends, and seems quite happy to be at a loss of all the things people complain are depending on them when they get fired.

There are three sequences with real laid off workers throughout the film (telling their horror stories, not being fired on camera). The first two of these are fairly seamlessly cut together with a scene of an actor (Zach Galifianakis, J.K. Simmons) interacting with Bingham and the events at hand. The performances of the actors shown against real people are strong enough that they flow without a hitch, a credit both to the director and these two fine character actors. The third sequence is the same people we have seen previously discussing how their lives really did get a positive new focus after being fired. The real reactions being given by those interviewed give an authenticity to the proceedings that the film seems to strive for.

THESE REST OF THE REVIEW CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS
Bingham’s one relationship that almost convinces him to forego his life as a baggage-less person is with Alex, who as she says, should be imagined as Ryan Bingham “but with a vagina”. The life they have together meeting up whenever they can is too good to be true and is ultimately built on a superficial idea of status cards. When Bingham seems to reach a point of willingness to give up his job, effectively his life, and leaves the conference where he is speaking in Las Vegas to see her in her home in Chicago, he (somewhat predictably) only finds disappointment in learning she has a husband and family. The life Alex lives on the road is not the one she has at home. What’s more, the film fairly clearly suggests that Alex is a nymphomaniac. The way she has adventurous sex with Bingham is one thing, but you get the feeling that he is not the only one she has this relationship with. Additionally she mentions having joined the mile high club on a domestic regional flight during the day, and masturbates before she even texts Ryan to talk one night. These are signs of a woman who is not only adulterous, but obsessively so.

After the dissolution of his relationship with Alex everything in Bingham’s life takes on a different light. The ending, which is somewhat open ended, can be translated three-fold as I see it. One is the happy ending. Ryan has ended up exactly where he was when we met him, and after everything he has gone through he decides to leave that baggage behind (literally) as he lets go of his bag and looks up at the big board of flights to take Natalie’s advice to just fly anywhere you want once he has reached his goal of elite status as only the seventh person to ever accumulate 10 million frequent flier miles. Cut to the clouds, and he is off on his journey to anywhere.

The second ending is the mundane ending. Bingham has been reinstated at his job and everything is right where he wanted it to be before Natalie started messing things up for him. He goes back to following his own advice to shed everything that didn’t fit in his backpack. Alex is gone, Natalie is too. He recommends her for her new position in San Francisco because he is showing he is right about how you have to leave everything but the job behind. He has lost his second career as a motivational speaker but that was extraneous and had to be cut. He is the Ryan Bingham we met before, once again suppressing the bad things that have tried to sidetrack him throughout life and continuing to be an excellent fire-for-hire.

The third ending is the dark ending. His willingness to extend himself to Alex ended in failure. In the process he realized the status card lifestyle has lost its’ luster. When Bingham achieves his goal of ten million miles, the moment is utterly futile and as he states, he has gone through this so many times in his head but now he doesn’t know what to say. He is back in the job exactly where he was at the beginning of the entire ordeal, and the distance with his own family has finally come to a place where he understands that he will never be close with them (even if he wanted to be) because of his own coldness. He gets asked by his boss (Jason Bateman) if he remembers a woman who threatened to jump off a bridge during a firing. He says no, but of course we know he does. This puts a seed into his mind. He ends up at the airport, lets go of his bag, effectively his life, and looks up at the meaninglessness of the big board and its’ endless flights around the country. We see his face one last time realizing this, and then we cut to an extended shot of floating through the clouds in silence. Ryan Bingham has committed suicide.

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**** Four Stars - Definitely see this film

Up In the Air is now playing in theaters everywhere is has been nominated for six Golden Globe awards.