DVD Reviews

Up in the Air – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Mar 9, 2010, 13:47 GMT

From Jason Reitman, the Oscar(R)-nominated director of "Juno", comes "Up In The Air", the timely odyssey of Ryan Bingham (Oscar(R) winner George Clooney), a corporate downsizer and consummate modern business traveler who, after years of staying happily airborne, suddenly finds himself ready to make a real connection. Ryan has long been contented with his unencumbered lifestyle lived out across America in airports, hotels and rental cars. He can carry all ...more

“What’s in your backpack?”

George Clooney flies the friendly skies in a bid to get oodles of frequent flyer miles. His profession is not one to sing so highly of though as he fires people. The tanking economy has him nearing his goal, but he also discovers that his well organized life is not all its cracked up to be.

If Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is sitting across from you at work, you’re about to get canned. Bingham works for a company in Omaha, Nebraska that flies around the country and fires employees for bosses too chicken to do it themselves. Bingham is their top producer, but he also moonlights as a motivational speaker.

He relishes his life that is free of relationships and baggage and his goal is to amass ten million frequent flyer miles – a goal he is rapidly approaching and that and only been achieved six times before.

He meets Alex (Vera Farmiga) on one of his business trips and a relationship starts to blossom. His boss (Jason Bateman) has called all the troops to company headquarters. When they arrive they find that the ambitious Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) has developed an online firing system to keep the costs of sending people across the nation - the rotten economy has their business jumping, and basically do it by remote control.

This does not sit well with Ryan and he challenges his boss and Natalie’s new plan. This backfires in a way on him since his boss sends Natalie on the road with the lone wolf to learn the ropes.

Charming, handsome, and a dislike of Alec Baldwin (at least at the Oscars), George Clooney and I have so much in common. Actually, our esteemed editor always mentions my pal George Clooney when he gives me a flick of his since my diatribe against the actor’s snarky comments regarding Charlton Heston.

Ironically, the actor’s career has grown into one that harkens back to old Hollywood and the status of stars such as Heston or Cary Grant. There, I got a Heston reference in.

Clooney is all charm and skill in a role that should make us hate his guts. Ryan Bingham is a careful construct, both in his personal life as well as his professional one. Even Ryan doesn’t know who he is. His profession is one to hate as he is a stranger who flies in, hands you your pink slip and mutters platitudes, and flies back out again. I can recall reading an article about a similar company.

They were a bit worse than our hero in that they would actively lie to the poor person being fired (Where’s your mom from? Ohio? Hey, my mom’s from Ohio [even when they weren’t born anywhere near Ohio]). I guess it was done with trying to make a hard situation a bit softer, but it still didn’t feel right to me.

At least, we see that Ryan is good enough at what he does to find ways to diffuse the situation and that at least he can do it with some amount of truth. For example, in firing Bob (the fantastic J.K. Simmons), Natalie botches it and Ryan is able to take elements of Bob’s resume and turn him to thinking towards another career path. Ryan certainly appears to have it all together.

However, we know that that’s the furthest from the truth as Ryan is a lost soul. He finds some happiness in his encounters with Alex. Who wouldn’t as Vera Farmiga is a sexy, confident delight. In one scene she wears only a necktie and has eclipsed that GQ cover with Jennifer Aniston in my dirty mind. She appears to know what she wants in life and happily to Ryan it appears to be him (lucky bastard).

Natalie also seemingly knows also where she’s going but that’s up the career ladder. Her ambition has driven her to develop an impersonal system that she, at first, doesn’t see the errors of.

Anna Kendrick plays both sides of Natalie’s personally with skill. All three actors would garner Oscar nods, as well as director Jason Reitman for both his direction and writing with Sheldon Turner. The film would also be in the running for best picture. It would take home no gold in any category. Sadly so, as it is a fine film.

Up in the Air is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). Special features are presented in high definition and start off with a commentary by writer/director Jason Reitman, director of photography Eric Steelberg, and first assistant director Jason Blumenfeld.

The 2 minute “Shadowplay: before the story” looks at the company that made the opening credits. Next is the 1 minute “Help Yourself” music video by Brad Smith, 1 minute of video storyboards, 23 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary by Reitman, a 37 second “American Airlines prank” that was sure to cast fear in the boardroom (but might be funnier there than to us), the 2 minute teaser trailer, and the 2 minute theatrical trailer.

What’s not up in the air is the caliber of Up in the Air. It’s a fine film that soars thanks to some excellent acting and plot. It’s a wonderful little film that you won’t be firing anytime soon.