REVIEW: Up In The AirRSS

4 stars

There’s no better time for a movie about redundancy and the a-holes hired to do the firing. George Clooney is perfectly cast as the non-committal, hotel-hopping schmoozer downsizing companies across America. As convincing as Clooney is, Ryan’s world is pretty far-fetched. Here’s a guy who doesn’t like being at home, has no ties to anyone, anything or any place. So it helps if you can suspend disbelief for those who’d rather eat plane food than a home-cooked meal.

But just as Lost in Translation captured the loneliness of travel, Up in the Air brings its ridiculous nuances, from loyalty cards and crappy corporate parties, to life. Essentially the film hangs on the connections that arise out of being transient and how well you can really know someone you only see sporadically.

Nothing about Ryan’s cute relationship with Alex, played by the cool and classy Vera Farmiga, feels like a conventional Hollywood romance. His slowly thawing relationship with icy upstart Natalie, Generation Y in a suit jacket, is just as believable.

It’s a shame that a real-life scene at the end whacks viewers over the head with the moral, since the film’s main messages resonate throughout: no one is indispensible, family is all that really matters, life will teach you lessons when you least expect it. A first-class comedy.