Drama Movie Review: Up in the Air
This is a movie review of Up in the Air.
Plot Summary (courtesy of IMDB):
Ryan Bingham's job is to fire people from theirs. The anguish, hostility, and despair of his "clients" has left him falsely compassionate, living out of a suitcase, and loving every second of it. When his boss hires arrogant young Natalie, she develops a method of video conferencing that will allow termination without ever leaving the office - essentially threatening the existence Ryan so cherishes. Determined to show the naive girl the error of her logic, Ryan takes her on one of his cross country firing expeditions, but as she starts to realize the disheartening realities of her profession, he begins to see the downfalls to his way of life
Run Time: 109 Minutes
Movie Review:
As Up in the Air starts we find out the main character's job is to travel around the country to fire people. With Up in the Air coming out in a poor economic climate I was expecting this movie to focus a little more on this idea. While Up in the Air does do this to some extent the movie does not focus on this topic. Instead, it focuses on the main characters life and his relationship with others. There were a lot of good moments, but i found myself getting bored with the movie in some parts where it was slowing down. A lot of the ending of the Up in the Air is extremely predictable. I was not surprised by anything that happened, and neither were the people sitting behind me who happily predicted each scene for the final 30 minutes.
Up in the Air has been nominated for multiple awards already, but I do not see why. It is not George Clooney's strongest acting job, although he delivers the few jokes in a great monotone. Most of accolades that have so far been associated with Up in the Air feel more like industry insider choices than actual earned awards. There were too many scenes which seemed more like commercials for Hertz, American Airlines, and various hotel chains than actual theatrical performance. In fact, one of the main points of the movie was a quest to gain a special frequent fliers card from American Airlines, a point which came up far too often to not be considered a blatant advertisement.
Going into the viewing of Up in the Air I had much higher expectations than what I came out with. I recommend waiting until this comes out on DVD so you can rent it and watch it once. Or watch it when you fly with American Airlines as they are sure to overplay it on their flights as soon as they can.
Movie Review photo credit: movies.yahoo.com
Overall Movie Review Rating: I rate this movie as a Blah See - 2 stars
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