'Up In The Air'

I was supposed to go back to my hometown for Christmas for the first time in six years. When I woke up that morning, I was exhausted. Fucking exhausted! No energy whatsoever. The cold probably didn't help. So, when I learned that getting to Madison from Chicago could not be guaranteed, due to an indefinite delay, I opted for the full refund (which I'm still waiting for...) and a trip back to bed. Another Christmas alone. There seemed something perfect about seeing a protagonist like Ryan Bingham Christmas day. Ryan lives in airports and hotels, masters the art of traveling light (he even gives seminars on the subject), has no attachments apart from his job, and is all but estranged from his family.

Ryan is the subject of Jason Reitman's unintentional remake of 'Jerry Maguire', 'Up In The Air'. Reitman is shaping up to be his generation's Cameron Crowe. His films are 2 parts comedy, 1 part heartbreak, add accoustic guitar-musical cues, serve with smiley montages, and finish with a life lesson. Like Tom Cruise's Maguire, George Cloney's Ryan is a slick business douche who's traded his human connections for an ungodly number of frequent flyer miles and hotel room key cards. And, of course, he's the best at what he does. But unlike Maguire's shallow-best-friend-sports agent, Clooney travels from failing corporation to failing corporation firing people. It's a subtle skill, and one that requires as much tough love as it does providing a kind of hope for their future. It's all in the packet he hands them. He soon takes fresh-out-of-college Natalie on a trip of destruction to prove to her that their job needs the kind of face to face contact that her revolutionary web cam idea could never deliver. She gets quite an education on the road, but so does Ryan as his recurring rendezvouses with fellow frequent flyer, Alex (Vera Farmiga), become something more. All this is leading up to his sister's wedding in hometown Milwaukee, which pulls him closer to his family then he's been in years. Is Ryan ready for the kind of redemption that Jerry had?

Whatever. It doesn't matter. The end will come as no shock to anyone and 'Up In The Air' is a perfectly harmless movie. The cinematography is subtle enough not to really notice until you think about how appealing all these unappealing places look. George Clooney is...well, George Clooney. He's an actor whose charm and good looks make you follow him throughout every frame, and a man who looks like he was born in a perfectly wrinkle-free suit. He's as magnetic as always, but leaves your mind as soon as you're not looking at him, as always. Vera Farmiga, the slightly younger version of Robin Wright, has a modest role as Alex, but one that helps make the journey one that's always enjoyable. She's sexy, smart, funny, and the most adventurous of the three. The usual Reitman alums are here: J.K. Simmons, Jason Bateman, and the immortal Sam Elliott, whose one scene is probably the movie's most gratifying.

The movie features the occasional montage of supposed actual firees discussing the hardships of being victims of our current recession. Is Reitman exploiting this crisis for art or shining a much needed light on it? That's for you to decide. But they all seem to agree that the only thing keeping them going are the people in their lives. Husbands. Wives. Kids. The people that Ryan doesn't have. I don't know. I guess being grounded when trying to spend Christmas with my family and old friends for the 1st time in six years made me feel a little like old Ryan. Oh well, at least we got to spend Christmas together.