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Saturday, December 26, 2009

Film Review | Up in the Air


by debbie cairo

This is the story about Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a man who spends most of his life traveling from city to city. He's got his whole life arranged for this purpose. His actual job is to fire people. Companies hire his company to send someone in to fire their employees and offer them "transition services".

Ryan's world is thrown into chaos when a young upstart Anna Kendrick (Natalie Keener) has convinced the company they can do their business via webcam.

The boss sends the two out on the road together so that Anna can learn the business and try out some onsite webcam firings.

There are some twists and turns along the way that I won't give away, neither will I give away the ending. At its best this is some great character studies, at its worst a hell of an entertaining movie. Ivan Reitman is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors and he's put his own quirky sense of humor into the writing of this one as well.

At no point did I even think of looking at my watch, which is how I judge how entertaining the movie is. There we a few points I laughed so loud it was a little embarrassing. If you have a chance to go see this movie, you should do so.

2 comments:

A. Catherine Noon said...

Excellent! I really want to go see this movie, particularly now that you've written such an engaging review. Thanks!

Healthy Mary said...

Thanks Debbie. I saw it too on your suggestion. Entered the theater, after seeing the previews numerous times on TV and the big screen suspecting Up in the Air as a romantic comedy with easy-to-look-at, can’t steal a scene from George Clooney fluff. Left the theater realizing I wasn’t exactly wrong. Funny and romantic - yes! And GC dominates the screen. Fluff it’s not. Right after, I told friends it would be forgotten by the next day. Ever talked miles? Ever fired or been fired? Ever wondered if being grounded is just too raw and real? Two days later and I keep rehashing it internally and with anyone who has seen it. So, I haven’t forgotten it at all. I feel like I overdosed on movies – gotta get this one out of my system before I see another.