An elegant movie for grownup, with dialogue so sharp, witty, and emotional that it makes for the best screenplay of the year. Co-written and directed by Jason “Juno” Reitman, this is the story of Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), an ice-cool exec whose job is to fly around corporate America firing people on behalf of bosses who are too scared to do it themselves. Usually the victims are middle-class folk in Wichita, St. Louis, or Cleveland, innocent casualties of the economy. Ryan’s good at his job, because he’s all about detachment. He sees the world from a bird’s-eye view high in the sky. Airplanes and airports are home to Ryan. All the things you hate about flying are what he loves. He’ll come into town, fire a handful of long-time employees, and be back at the terminal in time for the final boarding call.
This is the Clooney we love – sexy and debonair instead of eye-popping and screwball the way he is in, say The Men Who Stare at Goats. Here he’s poised and smooth, Michael Clayton-style, sipping his cocktails like a man’s man. With just a swipe of his executive-elite card, Clooney’s Ryan Bingham skips the lines at the hotel desk and car rental agency; he floats into airport lounges like a king. Yet he’s very much alone – until two complications crack his cocoon. The first is Alex (Vera Farmiga), a sexy beauty who comes with her own set of seven-figure frequent-flier miles. And the second is Natalie (Anna Kendrick, whose performance shines next to Clooney’s), a fresh-faced corporate know-it-all plucked out of Cornell. Ryan’s boss (Jason Bateman) loves Natalie’s plan to bring new video-conference technology into the firing trade – it means no more “up in the air” time for people like Ryan. But first Natalie will have to learn the ropes at Ryan’s side. And Ryan may have to, in so many ways, come down to earth. Part of the beauty of this movie is in how it reflects our current economic troubles. But the movie’s ache is timeless. The old saying that “youth is wasted on the young” feels painfully true as we contrast the naïve certainties of a twenty-something (Kendrick) with the seasoned certainties of a forty-something (Clooney and Farmiga) – which may turn out to be just as naïve. Up in the Air is about how our expectations evolve with experience – and have to keep evolving, even when, like Clooney’s Ryan Bingham, we think we know it all. Four tiaras in the air