I wish this review were brought to you by American Airlines and Hilton Hotels much like this movie was, but it's not. (...and THAT should conclude my bitchiness for this review, 'cause I LOVED THIS MOVIE!)
See, my friend Beverly asked if I had seen Up in the Air and I had not. As a matter of fact I didn't really care about seeing it even with it's six Academy Award nominations.
What a mistake. Great flick.
Long story short this film is an adaptation of the 2001 novel of the same name, written by Walter Kirn. The story is about a "corporate downsizer" named Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) and his travels, life and philosophies... and the people he meets along the way. I don't really want to say anything more because I didn't know a THING about it except that it's about a guy who works for a company that other people hire to fly out and fire their employees. That's all anyone REALLY ever said about it and that worked out BRILLIANTLY for me.
But it's about SO much more. It's about life, choices, desires, missions, expectations, family, trust, hope and of course, love.
Along the way he meets Alex (Vera Farmiga who is SO freaking charming!!!) and what you think is going to be a terminal relationship (See what I did there? Airport comedy. Works every time.) turns into SO much more. Jason Bateman portrays Clooney's boss and calls him back to the office to meet a new employee named Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) who is completely different from him and instead of it being a crappy movie formula, she ends up opening both the eyes of the viewer, her onscreen co-stars and even herself.
(She looks like a VERY angry Stephanie Tanner from Full House, no?)Seriously: I laughed a LOT, I cried more than I expected, I was charmed often and even got a few of those "Oh-my-God-NO Chills". Um, there was this convention party scene that I have NO idea what the hell the point of it was, but whatever, and every ONCE in a while, the film breaks away from the two relationships you want to follow (and those moments = boring times) but those moments could just be palette cleansers to make sure that YOU'RE sure that you care about the characters.
I will say the end of the movie was SUPER predictable...the very end was not and the very, VERY end was perfect. SEE IT!
My issue with it was I felt it was too smug for it's own good. It was another example of George Clooney AS Daniel Ocean. This could have been an OCEANS movie - sans the heist. He needs to play a drug addict or a homeless man to show he has SOME SORT OF RANGE other than what we already know and love.
ReplyDeleteWhile I didn't hate the movie, I thought it fell flat on the predictableness of not showing us some other range of his. And yes, yes... I know he was kind of a lovelorn sad sack – but he was also kick ass at his job, so not entirely a loser.
I can TOTALLY see what you're saying about it being an OCEAN'S movie. The opening credits sequence is TOTALLY a knock-off.
ReplyDeleteI also understand that you want more from him. I am not a fan of his and don't 'get' him, so when I saw this money, I actually thought he was doing something different and I liked it.
If it makes you feel any better, I feel the same way about Nicole Kidman that you feel about George Clooney. I'll kill her if she does another accent.