Movie-Up in the Air

Up in the Air was nominated for several major Oscar's, including best picture, best actor for George Clooney, and both Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick for best supporting actress. It did not win any of them.

Up in the Air (2009) is an amazingly topical film, dealing with layoffs and a bad economy. And I think some of the praise it got was due to that, but I think some critics also found it too topical, and it may have hurt the film for awards. But the film, because of, and despite its topicality, is really good.

George Clooney is what used to be called a hatchet man...a professional layer-offer. He travels from company to company firing people, telling them they no longer have a job, no longer are useful members of society. He comes in because it inconveniences the owners or management to have to face the people who work their asses off for them, themselves.

Clooney's Ryan is really good at what he does, and he tries to help people maintain their dignity at this terribly undignified time in their lives. So he is taken aback when the company he works for tries to change the way he does his work...they are trying to doing it remotely...via teleconference.

For me, what impresses in the movie is that it seems to question the whole fabric of work ethic. It has an underlying question of why? Why do we become our jobs...why must we feel that we are worthless if we are fired...it wasn't our fault much of the time. Downsizing, outsourcing, profit margins...all that makes the worker just a number. Why are so many people not considered useful members of society just because they got cut for the bottom line?

In short, the movie talks about the dehumanization that corporate America seems to force down our throats.

Clooney is great as Ryan...as Clooney is great as most everything he does. The story of his company is intriguing, and his love story with with so excellent Vera Farmiga is well written, adult and shattering. But the crux of the movie is the questions of why...not just why these people are out of work, but why is work the most important thing to so many...why does work make us cry, and hurt and love and have heartbreak...all over a job.

I don't think Up in the Air was the best picture this year...but it was damn good one, and braver than many gave it credit for. Many saw it as only a topical film, but it was much more than that.

At least that is my opinion.