George Clooney is Me

In Up in the Air, George Clooney plays a good-looking middle-aged man who travels a lot and doesn't have any long-term relationships. OK, I know this sounds suspiciously like the Geoff Clayton Story but there are some small differences between his character and mine First, I don't fire people for a living. And second,  Clooney takes both the travel and the lack of relationships to a level that even I can never reach. He is trying to reach ten million frequent flyer miles and zero relationships. In fact, he gives self-help lectures about "emptying the backpack" of all the things that are weighing you down in life. The heaviest things in the backpack, of course, are relationships. Clooney has been happily traveling and not making relationships for years but things are about to catch up with him. First, a new young young member of his firm (Anna Kendrick) suggests to Clooney's boss (Jason Bateman) that people could be fired by video-conference; no travel necessary. Then relationships start sneaking up on Clooney. Not only does he have to mentor his young associate on the road, but his sister (Melanie Lynskey) is getting married and wants him to come home to Wisconsin for the wedding. For a while, Clooney seems to have the perfect non-relationship with a female version of himself (Vera Farmiga) but he begins to doubt his empty-backback lifestyle.

                                  

Up in the Air was written and directed by Jason Reitman, son the of the fabled Ivan Reitman who directed Meatballs, Stripes, Ghost Busters and Dave to name a few. Now Ivan's son, Jason, is doing very well for himself. He has already directed Thank You for Smoking, Juno and now Up in the Air. That's an amazing first three movies and I really liked all of them. Up in the Air is just so well put together. The screenplay, the cast and the direction are all great. And the end of the movie may surprise you.

George Clooney is so good at playing, well, George Clooney that he is a joy to watch. He doesn't veer off and play characters that he knows are beyond him. But that being said, he has made some very interesting movies and played some very interesting characters including a smooth ex-con (Ocean's Eleven), a tired spy (Syriana), a bitter fixer (Michael Clayton), and even a sly fox (Fantastic Mr. Fox). Up in the Air is George Clooney's movie. He is in every scene. And because he fits the role so perfectly and plays it so effortlessly, people may not recognize that there is some great acting going on here.

The rest of the cast is also very nice. Jason Bateman (Juno) is cool as always, and Anna Kendrick (Twilight) is excellent as the women who becomes more like George Clooney than she would like. Vera Farmiga (The Departed) does great job playing the female George Clooney. And she and Clooney have a nice chemistry together. There are some nice cameos by people who are getting fired by Clooney including the suddenly ubiquitous Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) and J.K. Simmons (Juno). Danny McBride (Pineapple Express) plays Clooney's future brother-in-law. The always wonderful Sam Elliot appears as the chief pilot of the airline.

 Up in the Air is one of the best movies of the year. It will definitely be on my Top Ten List and  probably up for a few Oscars as well. It's not often that I go to a movie expecting it to be great and have it meet my expectations. Maybe if you hate George Clooney, you might not like Up in the Air but who could hate George Clooney. I mean really. Go see it.