Up In The Air

“I feel like the people I worked with were my family and that I died,” says one of countless employees laid off by Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) of Career Transition Counseling, an intermediary hired to administer employee layoffs on behalf of corporate cowards.

The nomadic Mr. Bingham lives in his carry-on—with rollers, very important; on average, thirty-five minutes are wasted going through check-in. A frequent flyer on the edge of racking up ten million miles, he knows this and everything else necessary to travel lightly and quickly. He’d be disappointed in my sister and her entourage of matching luggage.

The silver-tongued protagonist also does the lecture circuit. He enlists a backpack as a shallow metaphor for baggage with which we weigh down our lives. “Drink some gingko and let the photos burn,” the guru preaches. Suffice it to say, the man is a stranger to his own relatives. Says the eldest sister when inviting him to Wisconsin for his youngest sister’s wedding, ” I know how you are about… doing things… for others.”

His manager, Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman), drops the first shoe; all the field reps are being reeled in and will be distributing layoff notices via videoconference. That it’s terribly impersonal and rude is beside the point. Bingham will no longer be pampered in every VIP lounge, by every airline concierge service. This is the end of life as he knows it.

Into Mr. Bingham’s solitary existence, two women enter. First, the technocrat, pint sized Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), whose idea it was to take agents off the field and into the cubicle. She’s the other shoe… a fastidious woman so incapable of relaxing and appreciating the scenery of life. Bingham seems offended by this more than any of the logistical changes to his job.

Second, the escape artist, Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga), also a traveler whose profession is never revealed. She’s as obsessed with the perks of elite traveler status as Bingham. Succinctly, she summarizes, “Think of me as yourself… with a vagina.”

Alex gets next to his skin—even if only for 40 minutes between connecting flights—while Natalie crawls under it. Mr. Bingham seizes the opportunity to take Ms. Keener on the road to enlightenment. You’d think this is one of those stories where the protagonist realizes he really needs to be with his diametric opposite. Life is rarely like that.

Director Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters, Stripes), shows his chops in this analogue to his feature debut, Thank You For Smoking, also about a dedicated pitch-man with a conscience-devouring job. In both cases, the fundamental nature of the protagonist never changes—pragmatic and true. What does emerge, however, is a more balanced understanding of himself and his place in the world.

It’s truly cliché to observe that George Clooney often channels Cary Grant. It’s also true that he’s maturing into the same charismatic, older leading man that Grant became. He’s the affable man at the mixer every woman wants to meet, and every other man wants to be. The consummate bachelor, Mr. Clooney reflects just enough comfort in his own skin without teetering into arrogance, quietly amused by life’s idiosyncrasies. There’s a great deal of Marcello Mastroianni in him.

Vera Farmiga lends credibility to the experienced, 40-ish career woman. But the standout, surprisingly, is Anna Kendrick. Known to my readers as the girl who recites awfully self-aware dialogue in Twilight, here she redeems herself with a performance that runs the gamut—uptight analyst, ironically relationship-dependent girlfriend, drunken harlot.

Take a stab at which character will ultimately become more endearing. In a simpler film, the final shot would cut to Ryan dropping everything to be with Alex. In a hip film, he’d break from that and end up with Natalie. In a smart film, he would stay true to his loner self, gaining the knowledge and wisdom he needs from the experience of being with both women.

This is an intelligent film with many thoughtful scenes. Note his younger sister Julie’s (Melanie Lynskey) subdued expression of guilt when Bingham politely accepts that another uncle will be giving her away. Watch Bingham and Goran dancing at a tech party conference they crashed. A wide shot, it feels as though we are eavesdropping, but on Mr. Clooney and Ms. Farmiga. Not that they broke character, but I think they are the characters. At this stage in the actors’ lives, they put on no ostentatious displays to conceal insecurities. They appear to genuinely enjoy the moment. This appeal is a setup, to be upended later. I won’t reveal how.

The more tender, introspective situations of this film remind me, tangentially, of John Hughes’ bittersweet Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Mr. Hughes treated his characters, however absurd their predicaments, seriously and respectfully. This is where the senior Reitman’s experience with Second City alums, may have rubbed off on the younger. Consider a dialogue with Keener, Goran and Bingham, in which the elders impart their wisdom of relationships upon the recently-jilted Keener. The scene is less about pontificating to Keener than it is about discovering their own needs, yet it manages to transform all parties involved. That was Hughes’ gift… the ability to relate, in small ensemble productions, a universal moral about interpersonal connections. Here, the younger Mr. Reitman more intimately defined the antihero from Thank You For Smoking. I look forward to chapter three.

Up In The Air opens today in select cities—exclusively at the AMC Northpark 15 in Dallas. The film opens nationwide December 25.

Up In The Air • Dolby® Digital surround sound in select theatres • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 • Running Time: 109 minutes • MPAA Rating: R for language and some sexual content. • Distributed by Paramount Pictures