With the global situation of penury and folding up, it is surprising that more movies are not made on the human element of people getting laid off from their jobs. When you think of it, any director would eat up the idea of capturing the scenario of two people sitting at a table, one who has just lost everything and one who is about to inform him or her that they have lost everything. That twitching, those subtle nuances. Which dialogue writer would not want to give some powerful and thought provoking dialogue to the scene?
Well, it may be that such movies were not made during that time as they'd be criticized to be milking the global scenario, but now that such a movie is made, we can only be too happy that the movie rests on the able charismatic shoulders of George Clooney.
Cast:
- George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a career transition counselor
- Vera Farmiga as Alex Goran=
- Anna Kendrick as Natalie Keener
- Jason Bateman as Craig Gregory, owner of Career Transition Counseling
- Amy Morton as Kara Bingham, Ryan Bingham's older sister
- Melanie Lynskey as Julie Bingham, Ryan Bingham's younger sister
- Danny R. McBride as Jim Miller, Julie's husband
- J. K. Simmons as Bob, a fired employee
- Sam Elliott as Maynard Finch, Chief Pilot
- Zach Galifianakis as Steve, a fired employee
Plot:
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is a so called career transition counselor who is the answer to every entrepreneur's, small business owner, or even the basic HR's question during turbulent times - who's gonna fire him/her?
The movie shows us that Ryan has someone closed himself up to the down right brutal job that he does, by concentrating more on the flying miles that he collects, which he can because his job has him traveling more than two hundred and fifty days in a year. During his travels, Ryan meets someone who is quite similar to him, a frequent traveler who spends more time at the airport than at home.
Things seem to be settled and even moving ahead when he is called back one day to the office and introduced to Natalie Keener, the newest employee/consultant in their company, who has come up with the revolutionary concept of firing people over the Internets, thereby saving a lot of revenue for the company and adding some padding to their already fat pockets.
Of course, Ryan does not take kindly to this, and like every other corporate scenario, the boss tries to keep both of his best resources by teaming them together - which creates an unlikely alliance of the veteran, hard as nails Ryan and the comparatively new Natalie, who has grown up in a generation which has understood that 'hiding behind the screen' is the best way to hide from unlikely and uncomfortable circumstances.
As Ryan and Natalie go through the countryside firing people, they become friends and even confidantes, as both of them begin realizing that different people live different kinds of lives, and have to question some of their decisions which they have come to live with.
Up in the Air Review:
Coming from the best in Hollywood, Up in the Air works on many fronts. First of all, it is a brutal, frank look at the very business of firing people, some who did not have any idea what hit them, to some who had a better idea of what was happening. Of course, the movie does show only one small percentage of the workforce as their main chunk, the people who were working really hard, in their middle age, and did not know what to do now.
There are, of course, those youngsters who still considered their jobs a picnic, while then there are those who have definite plans with their jobs, with the low paying jobs just yardsticks that they have to cross in their 30 year old career, or even those people who were about to quit this evening because they had hit something good. Not that it takes anything away from the movie, but it would be more realistic and believable if all aspects of the corporate world were shown.
The film basically rests on the acting caliber of George Clooney, Anna Kennick and Vera Farmiga, and the three take all of us on an endearing, emotional and contenting journey through this big, sarcastic beast that is called living.
Almost every frame of the movie is a high point, and this review would have to give you the entire synposis of the movie if it were to tell you about the high points in the movie. Of course, the clips of people being sacked that come up during the journey are quite rattling. If you have seen horror movies, you would be surprised to feel that 'what happens now' gut feeling when the old man is fired using the video conferencing technology and he spends some time crying in the room. You are almost waiting for the poor guy to have an heart attack and put an end to this glaring madness that has been blown apart by this romantic comedy.
The film works on various aspects and is too many stories rolled in one. It's the story of a person who doesn't like to call home, home, to the story of a young turk who may look strong and gritty but is someone who has lime and soda with vodka as she cries over her boyfriend quitting on her. The film is also a story of a woman who delves into her job not because her husband is a wife beater or her kids are drug addicts, but simply because she is someone who likes adventure.
And above all, it is the story of a dysfunctional, broken family that comes to terms with their values at a brief reunion of a younger sister's marriage. Watch this fare.
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