"Up in the Air"

“Up in the Air,” directed by Jason Reitman, screen play written by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, starring George Clooney, Jason Bateman, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick.

PIE IN THE SKY
Co-writer and Director Jason Reitman must have been prescient when he and Sheldon Turner wrote the screenplay for “Up in the Air,” a sad, poignant film that shows a complete disregard for the feelings of the majority of Americans who are currently jobless. The filmmakers used people’s uncertain status in the working world of today’s economy to tell a story about a seemingly emotionless, smooth-talking, handsome, Human Resources contract hit-man man, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney). They interviewed on camera real people, with a couple of exceptions, who had been fired, using the footage in segments throughout the film. In today’s economy, job loss and the unemployment figures are the worst since the Great Depression of the ‘30s and the economic downturn in the early ‘80s.

Bingham is the top guy at a large corporation specializing in the business of helping companies “downsize.“ His job is to convince you that losing your job is a good thing. He flies to all the major US cities, rents a car, and drives to identical “office parks” to companies that have hired him. Here is Clooney at his slickest in dress and manner. One is almost happy to be fired by such a one (On a personal note, I was fired by a hugely obese, heavily made-up woman. Whenever she lumbered past our cubicles, we would quake in our boots knowing heads would roll). Bingham’s lifestyle, when not spending almost the entire year up in the air or in high-end hotels, is spare. He has a small apartment with a kitchen nook, a bedroom accessed by pushing aside a tacky folding door, a closet with just so many look-alike suits and shirts, a dresser filled with carefully folded underwear, and socks. He lives out of his wheeled carry-on with its collapsible handle. And loves it.

We hear Clooney in the occasional narrative voice-over talking about the crazy things people do when they’re fired: The dreaded disgruntled employee syndrome that ends in a massacre at a former work-place or household. At the start of the film, Reitman shows people reacting as they listen to Bingham. They are middle-age employees for the most part seen full-screen sitting in front of a desk; Bingham is off camera. Their faces crumple as they speak about losing their homes, maybe having to sell their cars, and what will happen to their kids’ college fund? With a sympathetic yet encouraging smile, Bingham tells them that now, they can do whatever it is that they’ve always dreamed of before signing on to a job they were never passionate about. “You can be your own boss, start your own company, be an entrepreneur.” Before him are a stack of severance packets, detailing the terms of their being “let go.” “Never say ‘fired’ or ‘terminated’,“ he advises Natalie (Anna Kendrick), a new hire for his company. She is the epitome of the young professional woman who wants it all: career, marriage, kids. She’s crisp, pony-tailed, with an expressionless face that looks like a computer drawing.

He meets his match and more in no-nonsense Alex Goran (an excellent Vera Farmiga) in a swanky hotel bar. They start off by one-upping each other in displaying their plastic: credit cards, hotel keys, executive suite cards, and swapping travel stories. After a one-nighter, they gladly go their separate ways and later refer to their packed schedules for when they can meet again. They’re in it for the fun, companionship - - someone with whom to drink, dine, and bed. No strings, yet Bingham seems anxious at times. Things are great until his boss, Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman), tells him they’re going to save money by firing people via video-conferencing, a program proposed by Natalie. In effect, Bingham will be grounded.

Natalie is appalled by Ryan’s lifestyle, his detachment. She tells him that everyone needs the company of other people. Bingham takes her on the road. She gets her shot at a teleconference firing. A woman responds to her question, “What are your plans?” “I think I’ll jump off a bridge,” she says. A tragic result of one such impersonal firing sends Ryan back on the road.

The film is not all the cold, calculating business of firing people. Ryan takes Alex to his niece’s wedding back home. Despite the economy, she and her fiancé are getting married and will start a family. Ryan and Alex dance, laugh, carry on then go their separate ways. Ryan ponders Natalie’s observation. He seeks out Alex only to find she’s been playing him all along - - the film’s only twist. She’s basically fired him; now he knows how it feels. Still, being Ryan, he carries on. Reitman’s films, as in many mainstream films passing as “indie” or “art” films, carry the message that unless you’re married and/or have a huge, loving, yet quirky family that nevertheless ascribes to convention, you can’t possibly be happy. Once Ryan gets back on track, following a familiar routine, with all its perks, he certainly will be content if only to one day find love, and reconnect with his family. A last shot shows him entering yet another airport terminal. Home.
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