"Up in the Air" Review

Now as much as I hate writing positive reviews, after watching a plotless kids movie, a horrible shaky cam movie, and a movie that was about 90% special effects and 1% story, it was good to get back to a good old fashioned standard filmed movie. The fact that it starred George Clooney and was created by Jason Reitman, who wrote and directed one of my favourite movies of the last few years, “Thank you for Smoking”, (and for you people who are into that sort of thing, he made “Juno” too, which was OK I guess, except for Ellen Page's insufferable fucken dialogue) also influenced my positive interest in this movie.

I was lucky enough to see an advanced screening of “Up in the air”, which is a movie about a man named Ryan (Clooney) with a job of flying around America firing people from companies where the manager is too much of a pussy to do it themselves, and making public speaking appearances to talk about how not forming relationships with people is a good thing. Now while most people probably think this guy sounds like an absolute wanker, I can relate to him immensely. His characterisation at the start was awesome, and the dialogue in the first half of the movie is great, although often ridiculous (especially in the scene where he meets Vera Farmiga's character for the first time).

It seems like a great story of how a man who doesn't feel loneliness or guilt and who loves travelling gets his world twisted up... but then they have to go and give him emotions. Now I know there has to be some kind of conflict in a movie, and I know everyone has to go through a transition of some sorts, but for fuck sake! Go and watch “Thank you for Smoking” a few more times Reitman, Nick Naylor is basically still as much of a bastard at the end of that as he is at the start, and I loved him for that. I know, I'm just clutching at straws with that, but I had to find something to bitch about, and it did piss me off a fair bit...

Now while “Up in the Air” still has the flair and witty dialogue of his previous movies (well, only one in my opinion, but I can't really ignore the fact that everyone loved “Juno” for some reason), it still could have ended more substantially then it did. I did however enjoy the movie, I even loved it immensely for about the first hour, but I lost a lot of connection with the main character over time, and towards the end much of it became irritatingly predictable.

While it was an enjoyable film that I didn't get to swear lots about, and it'll probably get nominated for a few oscars, I wouldn't say it was Reitman's best work, but I do recommend it (but if you hate it, it's so not my fault). For all of you who aren't as cool as me and didn't get to see it half way through December, “Up in the Air” is released in Australia on January 7th (Or January 14th depending on your source. Pretty sure its the 7th though)

(Yeah, I know, it's not like a humorous review, but do you know how hard it is to write a funny review about something you enjoyed, yeh, ya don't, so stop whinging. I'm sure I'll hate “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel”, the name alone makes me want to die, so wait till then if you want to read me slag on a movie :P)