UP IN THE AIR is the film to beat for Best Picture this year. But to
call it Best Picture is to diminish it. Best Pictures come at the
whim of a fickle Academy that makes choices that don’t always stand
the test of time. UP IN THE AIR is a rarer bird – the kind of film
that announces that there is a new important director on the scene –
one for the A-list. Jason Reitman has already shown promise with his
previous efforts, THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, and JUNO. But promise isn’t
the word for UP IN THE AIR – it is something closer to mastery.

On the surface, UP IN THE AIR is the story of Ryan Bingham (George
Clooney), a man who lives a rootless existence as a kind of corporate
hitman. When companies can’t muster the fortitude to fire their
workers themselves, they outsource the job to the outfit Bingham works
for. He technically has a home base in Omaha, Nebraska, but he
spends most days on the road in hotels or in airports hopping from one
job to the next. Bingham celebrates his unfettered lifestyle – he’s
always on the move and doesn’t have any serious relationships to tie
him down. He even gives motivational speeches on the side extolling
the virtues of simplifying your life and seeking enlightenment on the
road. Complications ensue when Bingham starts hooking up with fellow
traveler and kindred spirit Alex (Vera Farminga), and when his boss,
the always-great Jason Bateman, forces him to take the rookie whiz-kid
Natalie (Anna Kendrick), who may eliminate his own job, on the road.

The easy way out here would be to set up the title character as the
one who needs to change. But does that mean he should aspire to
settle down and become an adventureless American suburbanite?
Reitman, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sheldon Turner
(significantly deviating from the novel by Walter Kirn), builds an
intricate character study out of this tension. The characters face
interesting dilemmas for which there are no easy answers, and nobody
does exactly what you expect. While the not-quite-traditional
narrative would make the film at home in the art house, there are
plenty of crowd-pleasing touches. It is simultaneously funny and
heartbreaking, and with a perfectly balanced performance as a
confident, yet vulnerable loner facing the listlessness of middle age,
Clooney shows why he’s best leading man working today.

Ryan Bingham is Jack Kerouac seen through a dark mirror – the beat
seeker has morphed into a corporate road warrior, and national chains
have homogenized much of the distinctive cultural landscape. Massive
title cards… CHICAGO…. DETROIT… ST. LOUIS (featuring beautiful,
hypnotic flyover shots of each city), are required to tell each
destination apart because at ground level they all look the same.
This is not dwelled on as a bad thing – the lead character has a
near-ritualistic approach to travel, and is proud of his brand loyalty
to Hilton and his nearly ten million miles on American Airlines. In
fact the two are corporate sponsors of the film. Tarted up in perky
greetings, lavish rewards, and chain uniformity, everything seems just
so. However, like the main character, the façade may be impeccable,
but the inside is hollow. The subtext is clear – here brand loyalty,
faux friendship, and artifice have replaced legitimate personal
connections. And the primacy of global business efficiency over
human-scale needs is a recurring theme.

UP IN THE AIR captures the economic zeitgeist in the anger and anxiety
of dozens of workers fired through little fault of their own. Some
lash out spectacularly, some cry, some take it as it is disingenuously
sold – as a new opportunity for personal growth. Reitman apparently
put ads in newspapers asking people to be interviewed on camera for a
supposed documentary about the economy. He had them fired on camera
and asked them to react either how they had actually reacted or how
they wish they had reacted. The resulting montages devastate with the
ring of truth that it would be impossible to deliver had they been
traditionally written and acted. In fact, it seems the track sung
over the end credits was written by an out of work musician who sung
it into Jason Reitman’s answering machine.

These undercurrents give UP IN THE AIR an unsettling resonance. It
may ultimately be looked upon as the definitive portrait of 2009
America – one that is full of hard-working, well-meaning people, but
who live in a society that is financially devastated, shallow, adrift,
and ultimately impoverished by faith in corporate empires. A
brilliantly executed, witty character study starring George Clooney is
what is going to put asses in the seats this holiday season. But the
larger picture stuffed into the cracks is what will give the film real
staying power. From now on Jason Reitman won't be known mainly as
Ivan Reitman's son -- Ivan had better get used to being referred to as
Jason Reitman's dad.