Janet CollinsUp in the Air - A Discussion
January 28th 2010 04:54
Up in the Air is such a delight. It is a comedy but it is much more than that. Thanks to winning tickets on Jason King's Salty Popcorn site, I went off to see it the other day and what a great movie it was.
Judging by many of the reviews I have read since seeing this movie though, opinions are incredibly mixed on this one so let me know what you thought of it.
Warning: Those who haven’t seen this movie to date should stop reading now. It will spoil it for you.
I loved this movie. It was a comedy and an expose of the internet generation and more. The generation gaps are becoming narrower, business has become more ruthless, people are becoming more disconnected and the internet is changing the way we communicate.
One of the reviews I tend to agree with suggested that it was more of a movie for a mature audience, not because of adult themes such as sex, drugs and violence because there isn't any of that. It is because an older audience can appreciate the story a lot more purely because of life experience.
George Clooney’s character, Ryan Bingham, is a corporate hit man – a consultant hired to fire people because the company people “don’t have the guts to”.
He likes his job but not because of what the job is but because of the status, the perks and the lifestyle that it gives him. The frequent flyer points are the biggest draw card, not because he will really have enough time to use them but his goal of ten million mileage points will bring him into an elite exclusive club. Only six have made it to this club already.
There are other perks of course. There is the Gold Hertz Card and the numerous exclusive hotel VIP cards and the recognition by airport and airline staff, even the priority queue jumping that is usually reserved for celebrities and royalty.
That is not to say that he doesn’t take his job seriously. Not only has he perfected the “outplacement speech” and prides himself on being able to soften the blow, he has reduced the logistics of what he does down to a fine art.
He packs his carry-on bag with the bare necessities, has shoes that he can slip on and off at security check points and has learned how to judge the most efficient queues to join in the check in process. Bingham does not miss one detail. That is why we can’t really hate the guy. Just like parking police or highway patrol, he is simply doing his job.
He even speaks on how to narrow your life down to one back pack, physically and emotionally, and this topic has gained him a cult status on the motivational speech circuit.
Bingham is also disconnected – disconnected from any personal relationships, feelings and emotions. In fact, the closest he comes to connecting with other human beings is when he is actually disconnecting them from their jobs. That is why he loves to be “up in the air”.
That is before he meets Natalie Keener. When he learns of a proposal by the 23 year old psychology graduate to eliminate travel from the process by firing people over the internet, Bingham is more perturbed about his nomadic lifestyle being jeopardised than anything else.
In fact, after he sees the process being done over the internet one time, he tries the headphones on with more than a mild curiosity. At one point he even tries to convince his boss that he could do his work over the internet but would be “more comforting” for his victims if he did it from the next room.
The movie also highlights a generation gap in the crudest of terms. Twenty-three year old Natalie, even though a psychology major, does not really seem at all fazed at the task of firing people most of whom are more than double her age.
Her first trial run, even if it left her stumped for words, only fuelled her enthusiasm and drive further. Next we see her training some new recruits to do the same. Her choice of career was only questioned once she had left it, moved state and a future employer asked why on earth she had left her career path to “fire people for a year”.
With this brash, almost over-confidence there is also a naiveté in Natalie that comes across very clearly in a candid conversation with Bingham and his newly found fling, Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga). Alex is in her mid-to-late thirtees and Natalie makes the comment that “I know you did a lot for feminism” and then goes on to talk about love, marriage and Mr. Perfect.
Considering Alex would have been finishing high school or college in or around the late eighties, she could hardly have been credited as being one of the revolutionaries in the feminist movement and Natalie spoke to her as though there were a lot more years between them than there actually were. Her overheard comment to her boyfriend over the phone that Bingham was "old" seemed almost adolescent.
Many reviewers I noticed have criticized the choice of director, Jason Reitman, to add a bit of family obligation into the story. Bingham at one stage breaks a journey to attend his sister’s wedding - a sister he has had very little to do with.
I saw this as a good ploy to trick us into thinking that Bingham, after embarking on a fling with a sexy frequent flyer, was really about to change. A scene with Bingham and Alex going back to check out his junior school was a bit of a stretch though.
The movie, had many themes and many stories within it. As older people were losing their jobs it actually highlighted the crushing reality of ageing in the corporate world today.
You could go along and watch this movie for the sheer fun and the way Reitman has made comedy out of pain but the movie says a whole lot more.
How the generation gap is getting shorter, an ageist mentality in the workplace which is quite prevalent in America and Australia at least, the opportunism of the corporate world and how the internet has changed the way we all interact and work. And no matter what life teaches you, old ways are often far more seductive.
These themes are all in there. I could easily watch it again and I would probably find something else there on the second viewing.
I thought it was a brilliant movie. It was fun and thought provoking at the same time and it certainly put the spotlight on work and attitudes in the 21st century. Clooney, Kendrick and Farmiga all shine and the script is an absolute gem.
Is my view of this one anything like yours?
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Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Screen Trek
QUOTE ME NO QUOTES!
I loved this film, even though the use of real people being set up to be fired was also a aprt of the mix... that seemed to be going too far in my opinion.
I loved the way he smugly enjoyed the superficiality of his life, with the punctuation point s of reality and compassion, when he axed some poor slob.
It is the sort of film you can see again, as there are a lots of subtle social comments swimming around in the background.
cheers
fog
Comment by Janet Collins
Acceptable Etiquette
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
I could see it again too. I think Bingham had just enough compassion for his victims to make you warm him and he was under no delusions about what he was doing. And Natalie - well she was just like a lot of young go-getters out there today ...her only line that she could come up with to make them feel better was..."don't take it personally!"
I enjoyed every minute of it.
Thanks for dropping in.