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A termination expert (George Clooney) falls for a kindred spirit (Vera Farmiga) in Jason Reitman’s comic drama “Up in the Air.” |
The moment you meet Ryan Bingham, you just know it: He’s the master of his universe.
Bingham flies around the country and fires all the employees that company bosses don’t want to deal with themselves. Business is good.
He clocks 350,000 air miles a year. He belongs to all the exclusive, most elite travel clubs. He has packing quick and tight down to a habitual science, and he wields his coveted gold and super platinum credit cards with the grace and power of a Jedi knight armed with a light saber.
He also conducts seminars on preparing backpacks in which he equates possessions and people to dead weight that slows you down.
“Moving is living!” he proclaims.
“Up in the Air” is the slick and engaging story of this man, who flies above the fray of emotional attachments and the messiness of relationships. This noncommital, avowed bachelor is so close to the dashing actor who plays him, avowed bachelor George Clooney, that Ryan Bingham is easily the Clooniest character ever to grace the silver screen.
Director/writer Jason Reitman – who gave us the superior comedies “Thank You For Smoking” and “Juno” – has created (based on Walter Kirn’s novel) a funny, sexy, exceptionally romantic film oozing with post-financial-meltdown Zeitgeist that gives “Up in the Air” both a timely and timeless appeal. (Read more…)