Up in the Air: Movie Review

We are quite familiar with almost all, if not all movies vying for Best Picture in the different award giving bodies this year. One movie we have not heard before it got nominated is “Up in the Air”. The movie, starring George Clooney is labeled by some as his best film yet. Some even consider this as the overall best picture for the upcoming Oscars (speaking off the Oscars, we cannot wait for the results to come out in the next few days). Six Academy Award nominations pretty much says that this movie is going to be great, too bad that it was released in local theaters just this week. Let’s see if this film, based on Walter Kim’s novel can live up to its expectations.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) has an odd job. His job takes him across America to talk to employees and tell them that they have been laid off. On the side, Ryan conducts motivational speeches that tells people that they do not need a life with relationships for them to be happy. His primary goal in life is to reach ten million frequent flyer miles. In short, Ryan's job compliments his life's purpose and with that, he truly loves it. Ryan's job is threatened though when a new co-worker, Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), proposes that they should do virtual job firings to save on travel costs. When Ryan confronts Natalie and shows her that she does not know anything about the firing business, his boss decides that Ryan should mentor Natalie on his next few trips. Will Natalie learn something from Ryan or will Ryan learn from Natalie instead?

So can we say that "Up in the Air" has a chance to win the Best Picture category in the Oscars? We can fairly predict that it won't but it was not a bad film at all mind you. In fact, the unique story, characters and even the moral lesson fit the bill together which makes it a must watch for everyone. The film was also deep and will make you think a lot about your life. It was so effective in conveying its message, no thanks to the outstanding performances of the main characters especially George Clooney. We definitely have to agree that this is probably one of his best performances yet. So what made "Up in the Air" miss the trophy? We think it was the way the film's overall story was developed. It felt half-baked and with this, there seems to be a lot of disconnection between the mini dilemmas of each character. With a longer running time the film could definitely have been perfect.

Rating: 4 and a half reels




Why you should watch it:
- great performances for the three main actors especially George Clooney
- the movie's multiple plot points are unique and full of ironic surprises
- makes you ponder on what your daily life's true purpose is

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- for us, it was a little bit on the short side
- it lacked development and somewhat incomplete


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