Somehow Dylan’s timeless lines come to mind. America is changing, the Age of Superheroes is giving way to the Age of Introspection and turbulence. And the movies are following suit. Motivational guru and executor of retrenchment mandates, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) criss-crosses America in a life wherein emotional detachment is part and parcel of what he needs to be, But how detached is he? Up in The Air is about Ryan making the connection with what he believes to be a kindred perpetually airborne soul, and then losing it. It is about a man, bereft of family and emotion, his only definable goal in life being the accumulation of 10 million frequent flyer miles, landing in bland landscapes, spreading the chill wind even as he ostensibly helps people find meaning in their new state of catastrophe. Most of all, it is about the relationship between Ryan and Natalie (Anna Kendrick), a newly recruited hotshot, who breaks in with new paradigms of operational efficiency in the art of firing people, but eventually finds her soul. This is a difficult movie to watch in parts, and I really wonder what kind of people labeled this in the comedy genre. This is a different Clooney, detached, reserved and vulnerable, as he changes with the ebb and flow of those whose lives he is tasked to change for the worse
16/20
16/20
I have to say this movie surprised me a little: It was far mushier than the drama I expected it to be. True, I was'nt really aware of the genre it was slotted in, but comedy is definitely not it.
ReplyDeleteI'm willing to submit that Ryan might have a phase of life where he felt complete in himself without needing emotional companionship but he is entrapped by that image of himself and projects it accordingly.
To me, this just proves the almost dehumanising direction American urban lifestyles are headed in - distancing oneself from family, friends, emotions only to realise how empty life is without these.
Overall, a good movie, with some anomalies like: Clooney takes her home for his sister's wedding but Vera Farmiga doesnt tell him she is married and has a family?!
~Vasudha