Directed by Jason Reitman
Starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons, Danny McBride, Sam Elliott

Some will no doubt crucify me for saying this, but Up In The Air is a wasted opportunity. Now, this is by no means a bad film, in fact it's very much the opposite, but the first half was the most brilliant and clever writing I've seen on film in years, but the second half unfortunately is disappointing.

 Up In The Air centres around Clooney's Ryan Bingham who works in a human recources firm. The film takes place in the real world so the economic depression has been built into the story and very rightly so. Bingham is an isolated workaholic who travels the country giving people the bad news that they've been fired. He meets Farmiga's Alex who gives him the human contact he never realised he needed at the same time his firm assigns him a rookie collague played by Kendrick.

 Like I said, the first half is constructed brilliantly as Bingham makes his way through company after company giving the news. These moments are brilliant and written very intelligently with dialogue and the performances going hand in hand while on the other hand we're shown masterfully his life revolving around this job and nothing else. The addition of Farmiga's and Kendrick's characters to the mix brings the perfecting spices to the film, but right then things start to follow other, redundant and familiar patterns. Clooney's and Farmiga's relationship deepens and you start to wonder.. why? Must there always be some kind of romance between characters? And if so, then I must ask again, why? The film was doing so well without the romantic plotline and it was an important and above all topical look into the hollow and heartless business of these human resource companies. Ok, granted, the romantic story is a good one if you look at it like there had to be one, but that's the point, it really needn't. Up In The Air is a brilliant movie, but it could've been even more, a complete whole instead of a mixture of certain elements that didn't need to be there at all.


KITEYTETTYNÄ SINIVALKOISILLE
Up In The Air on voimakas ja taidokkaasti toteutettu katsaus sellaisten ihmisten elämään joiden työtä on ottaa toisten pois. Tällaisena tutkielmana elokuva olisi saanut pysyäkin loppuun asti, sillä alkupuolen käsikirjoitus on mitä nerokkaimmin kirjoitettua konfiktia, kunnes sekaan miksataan hyvin kirjoitettu, mutta täysin turha romanttinen alajuoni, joka syö tehokkuutta lopulta filmiltä. Loistava elokuva, muttei nerokas joka se olisi voinut olla.


IMDb