REVIEW: Reitman’s ‘Up in the Air’ Built With Award Season In Mind, Not Audiences
by John NolteBiases up front:
For many of the same reasons most of us don’t care for leftist movie stars, I don’t like George Clooney, but after he publicly made fun of Charlton Heston’s Alzheimer’s, that was something altogether different. Unforgivable. An uncommonly cruel thing to do – even for a Hollywoodist — and it offered a disturbing glimpse into the mercenary assholery of a man willing to say anything for a place at the Hollywood Cool Kids’ Table. Clooney’s other problem is that unlike Jane Fonda and Sean Penn, he simply doesn’t possess the acting chops to transcend what a classless act he really is behind that Cary Grant-lite façade. Sure, Hollywood and the entertainment media adore him, but that’s because he’s the kind of guy who would make fun of Charlton Heston’s Alzheimer’s.
I do, however, like director Jason Reitman — quite a bit, in fact. “Thank You For Smoking” and “Juno” proved him to be a genuine talent, superb with actors and able to bring genuine warmth to the kind of stories lesser directors would distance us from with “quirk.” And as we saw with the subtle anti- abortion message in “Juno,” Reitman’s the rare filmmaker today who puts the quality of his story above the clichéd politically correct demands that bring down so many others … like, say, the wretched “Avatar.”
“Up in the Air” will be a big player in this year’s award season. Already nominated for six Golden Globes, it’s sure to be a best picture contender at the Oscars, as well. Unfortunately, director and co-writer Reitman’s character study (based on Walter Kirn’s novel) of Ryan Bingham, an emotionally detached corporate downsizing expert who travels the country breaking the news to people he’s never met that they’ve been fired, feels like it was crafted solely to appeal to those who vote to give awards away.
The entire feel of “Up in the Air” screams “Oscar Bait,” everything from the film’s monotone mood to the sterile, fluorescent, on-the-nose cinematography we’ve seen a hundred times before to portray both life in Corporate McAmerica and our protagonist’s empty “emotional landscape.” The film’s final moment is its own kind of cynical, self-conscious plea for a stamp of importance.
Reitman delivers plenty of slick but not enough heart in what’s basically Hal Ashby’s “Shampoo” set in bland motels and airports. Like Warren Beatty’s randy hairdresser, Ryan Bingham loves that his work brings him in contact with all kinds of female conquests and that the 300 days a year he spends travelling works as a free pass from any kind of emotional attachment, including one with his working class family back in Wisconsin.
Some spoilers ahead…
Predictably only one thing can happen, and predictably it does. Bingham finds himself falling for a female version of himself, the sexy but aloof Alex (Vera Farmiga) who’s even better than Bingham at the art of seduction. Bingham’s world is also thrown topsy-turvy when his boss (Jason Batemen — who, like the Michael Caine of the 1980s now appears in everything) calls him into the Omaha home office to break the news about a corporate cost-cutting plan that threatens Bingham’s entire lifestyle.
This story turn takes us into the best part of the film, a subplot that has Bingham dragging the pixie-ish Natalie (an outstanding Anna Kendrick) behind him on the road as he schools the recent college graduate on the grim and very personal realities of his profession. Bingham doesn’t give much of a damn about those whose lives he drops a piano on, but he does take a professional pride in his work as well as his unique abilities to navigate through airport security and work the many angles necessary to fulfill his sorry life-goal of accruing a record number of frequent flyer miles.
Which takes us to the only real emotional commitment the story makes: to those poor souls losing their jobs. In the film’s best scene, J.K. Simmons is superb running through the emotional spectrum of a dignified man who’s just had the rug pulled out from under him. The film’s other victims of downsizing — the wives and husbands and father and mothers — are presented mostly in montage but the impact remains, especially for those of us have been through such a thing. To his credit, and whether they’re losing their jobs or living in the wilds of Wisconsin, the many everyday people populating Reitman’s film are never played for laughs. This is a topical story, not a political one.
The two-plus hour story doesn’t move, it coasts, and in the third act drifts a little off course. The performances are universally good, especially Clooney who I can no longer categorize as an actor with movie star looks and television talent. His media sycophants are already wildly over-praising his performance, but there’s no arguing that he’s finally delivered one worthy of the big screen.
Throughout, there are certainly moments of charm and humor, but nothing that ever breaks a sweat thanks to an almost oppressive aloofness determined to keep us at arm’s length. Like its protagonist, “Up in the Air” is just too cool for school to ever make an effort to move us.
Though I was moved to watch “Shampoo” again.
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George Clowney… has he ever had a role that didn't call for his little head twitches/leans to the left? If he has, I haven't seen it.
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Clooney is in this?
What more reason does one need to avoid seeing this than one would need to not watch a Prep H commercial?
I clicked on the link about Clooney's remark about Heston. And here I thought we conservatives were supposed to be the hateful, mean-spirited, intolerant ones.
George Clooney is a d**k.
It is almost cliche. Don't the big studios promote a "serious" movie with a "major star", who happens to give the "best performance of their career" every year. What a joke!
Shampoo is one of the best movies of the 70s and too often overlooked when that decade is discussed.
I'll see this because of Reitman. "Thank You for Smoking" is one of the best films ever made about government nannyism.
Watched "Shampoo" recently and it is still funny and can still shock. (Princess Leia as a kid using the F word particularly.)
Another movie about what it's like to work in the corporate world from people who don't have the faintest idea of what it's like to work in the corporate world? Ugggg!!! Office Space did just fine in it's attempt. Of course I wish I could earn millions making bombs at the box office and still keep my job like these guys do.
The only movie I would pay to see the asshole Clooney in is one where he is set on fire by a jihadist. Or beheaded. Acting ability? Clooney or Heston? No contest.
I never met the man, but I used to work with a guy who knew him– he absolutely despised Clooney. That's saying something in Hollywood.
I'm starting to think you may have wandered into the wrong theater. The movie I saw was deeply touchnig, and deeply upsetting at times. Especialy the ending, which stuck with me an hour after it finished. The importance of loved ones especially in hard times is a theme we can all get behind. And as for the demonizing of corporate America…..well, sometimes it seems justified. It's not perfect all the time and not every criticism has to be treated like it spilled out of some Michael Moore screed. And as for Clooney, once again nobody's perfect. When it comes to politics he can be an arrogant jerk, especially with the Heston joke, but on the sets you'd be hard pressed to find a nicer guy. Plus, I've enjoyed him in movies since "O Brother Where Art Tho" because its rare to see a leading man so consistently willing to make himself look silly.
we, too, don't have a big problem with Clooney, either…
Yeah, he's a lefty. His folks were mega lefties; he was raised in that environment. He does put his money where his mouth is- he really did try to help Darfur and even had an unlikely partnership with ultra conservative John Bolton.
Given to the occasional thoughtless leftie comment (On an 'Ocean's 12' shoot he was overheard mocking the NRA kids going to Iraq and what they now thought about weapon ownership- tasteless but predictable) we have
folk we know who hve run into a very charming and funny guy.
But the politics do define him, which is why his films are so mediocre. Just don't see them!
George Clooney is a d**k head.
" he made fun of Charlton Heston’s Alzheimer’s'
and he is proud of the fun he had referring Charlton Heston Alzheimer's, he still laughing.
The problem with the overly political celebrities is that they are ruining thier own business. I simply cannot stand Sean Penn and will not see anything with him in it. This is his fault. George Clooney was mildly entertaining until he started down the Political Path, now I could care less. I do not have the same reaction to Clooney as Penn but I will not spend money to see either. Don't they realise they are hurting thier own bottom line. Suprot whatever you want to but to demonize the other side is to insult half your potential audience. The everything is political crowd, both left and right, are doing real damage. We need good stories and good actors to portray them. Good stories are not political but human stories we all can relate to.
An inferior production, trying to scam the public with a has been 'star' with a staff of writers whose sensibilities will only allow them to portray Clooney at what he does best, grunt convincingly in front of a camera as if he were using his penis. Thanks, but no thanks.
I didn't know about his making jokes about Charlton Heston's Alzheimer’s. That's a totally different animal. Now he's not only annoying, he's a total scumbag. Hurting time, I think.
Thanks for reviewing this John so we don't have to!
Despite Clooney, I was somewhat intrigued by the project, I probably won't bother renting it.
Clooney can be a very good comedian. But then he pretends he has a brain and goes for agitprop. Too bad. It's sort of like Michael Jackson, who could have been another Fred Astaire. Both are, in different ways – moral sinkholes. But… I will go and see Clooney if the movie is a comedy.
Saw this trailer while waiting to see "The Blind SIde." It was one of about four trailers of people doing this or that forgettable and then bed scenes, which became indistinguishable from each other, so root around for popcorn ho-hum waiting for the feature. The truth? Didn't know where one trailer ended and the next began they were all so alike. The only reaction out of the audience any of the four got was two seconds of Alec Baldwin landing in the buff in front of a laptop camera. A good chuckle all around. But not Clooney's movie.
There was nothing intriguing at all about "Up in the AIr," and can't stand Clooney's inside pampered second generation Hollywood poltics anyway, so not going. What a surprise to see it whooshed UP to the Golden Globes nominations – to help sales.
I felt the same about "Thank You For Smoking" and "Juno." Too slick, too overthought, too composed. TYFS couldn't spend one single second without an obvious wink to the audience ("Ooh, we're acting like smoking and corporations are decent, but it's ironic because they're really eeevil!"), and Juno relied entirely on a script that made everyone sound like people in an Internet forum. I've learned my lesson, and I'm going to skip this one.
Hilarious inside note on Clooney's "Men who Stare at Goats".
The military scenes were shot at a HIGH SCHOOL military school. What a joke! Those are KIDS as their "soldiers." Not worth buying the ticket to check it out – but how pathetic is that? How tacky is the ending scene knowing it was done at a High School?
I've met Clooney a few times some years back, and I must say he's a really friendly, affable guy.
But of late, he became more and more the predictably boring Lefty mouthpiece, so much so that one of his Best Supporting actor Oscar acceptance speech a few years back started with "I'd like to thank Jack Abramoff…" a way "inside baseball" reference to the lobbyist whose scandal had zero to do with the role for which Clooney won the Oscar. The comment drew titters, natch, from the award show audience, but of course by then the rest of America had already tuned out.
Anyone who has had a relative who not only died a slow, lingering death caused by something that robs them of their very identity, as I did with my mother, no doubt should understand what an asshole Clooney is. I cannot stand Clooney, and I feel the same way about any of these leftie celebs who have said the same thing about Ronald Reagan. I can't stand Hillary Clinton or Barry Obama, either, but I for one would not wish such a horrible thing as Alzheimer's on either of them, if, for no other reason, for what it would do to their families.
Clooney had better hope he doesn't get Alzheimer's, because I suspect there are a lot of people out there who would say it was appropriate that it happened to him.
Clooney is the ultimate Hollywood insider he is as talented as he needs to be in that environment. The fact that a big chunk of Hollywood thinks Clooney is a truly talented actor is a judgement on them all. Hollywood is crawling with Antonio Salieris who want to be Mozarts.Clooney is no Mozart.
The only thing I've ever liked Clooney in is "O Brother Where Art Thou", probably because he is one of the few non-Southern actors who has done a convincing Southern accent in a movie. 'Course, that movie probably could have done just as well with someone else with a convincing Southern accent in the lead.
Speaking of Clooney, he did a fine job with the script and role he was given. To me it's far more interesting to analyze, discusss and critique the director. Thank You For Smoking was great. Juno was ok.. and this is a step down. The level of condescending towards the DORKY MIDWEST.. particularly making fun of Clooney's character's sister with her tiny diamond ring. SCREW YOU Reitman! When you bought your ring for your fiance … I'm guessing in Vancouver or NY… or Toronto.. or some place… how much of the cashola is in reality GHOSTBUSTERS money from Daddy's connections!?
Clooney is a virus. He's the pied piper of modern hollywood uberliberalism. Everywhere he goes and everyone he works with gets infected with a) uberliberalism, and b) a belief that uberliberal actors should be lecturing the rest of us on how to live our lives and on who to vote for.
My cousin's husband was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's– it was bad. He was in his early 50's and deteriorated so bad he had to be institutionalized within 3 years. He died about a year after that. Now my husband's grandfather is battling it. It's hard and comments like Clooney's display an arrogant disregard that make it hard to separate the man from the movies. But I'm sure karma will sneak up on him at some point.
i'll see this because part of it was filmed in my home town of St. Louis Missouri, and i know one of the extra's who has a speaking role in it. it doesn't hurt that Reitman is the director, i loved TYFS.
Please, don't even mention Clooney and Cary Grant in the same sentence. I've never found Clooney appealing. I never saw ER and I have only seen a couple of his earlier movies. He does nothing for me; zero, nada, zip.
Since then, .he's publicly shown himself to be an a*****e. Besides his Heston comments, he made the oh-so-typical elitist liberal Hollywood proud to be out of touch Oscar speech (a la Weinstein's Hollywood has the best moral compass).
I also saw him years ago on Leno during the Christmas season. Jay asked him what he was going to do for Christmas and he made it clear he wasn't fond of the time of year and would be escaping with his buddies to a Caribbean island. I remember being completely put off by his air of superiority.
Can't stand him and won't see a movie he is in because he simply ruins it.
I've never paid to see a Clooney movie and I don't intend to start now!!
In my opinion, actors' politics really take me "out of the movie", and I HATE that. I don't want to think about that when I'm watching. I have a gay lefty friend with whom I work. He hates it when someone in a movie says "That's so gay". I told him "Now you know how I feel, libtard!" (Ok, I don't call him a libtard…I call him a pinhead.) LOL
well, he's laughing all the way to the bank- or his Italian villa. Ultimately he doesn't care what we think; he loathes conservatism. And, of course, he's not alone…
Watching George Clooney in anything was ruined for me in the 90s when my mom was watching ER with me and said, "Why does George Clooney deliver all his lines with his head down?" Now that is all I see. He can't deliver lines with his held held straight. He is always putting his head down and looking up at the person he is addressing. Bad acting for sure.
Have not seen "Up in the Air" nor do I plan to, (just not my kind of movie regardless of who is in it) so I will not comment on it one way or the other. I do have to agree with you on "O Brother Where Art Though". I found it an amusingly enjoyable gem and a clever modern take on "The Odessy". And Clooney fit that role quite well.
Clooney's from Kentucky originally, which might be the reason. I agree, "O Brother" is the only thing he's ever done that I can handle watching.
Another thing concerning Clooney which I find irksome, I'm sick of the fawning H'wood media referring to him as a modern-day Clark Gable, Cary Grant or whatever other classic actor is rolling over in his grave at the comparison. (loved Mr. Nolte's description of his as Cary Grant-lite façade)
"mercenary assholery" Wow! I'm getting a lot of laughs at Big Hollywood today! But I think you've coined another good term, John. This seems to be a characteristic of so many of these public figures, they just seem heck-bent on at every opportunity proving to their peers that they are, indeed, an a-hole in the approved manner. Apparently it's ok to be a turd if you're the same kind of turd as the other COOL kids (stealing a trick from Victoria Jackson there!). Ah well, anyway, I just can't stand this puke, so good movie or not, nope, not gonna see it.
I haven't spent one cent on anything Clooney has done since his comment on Charlton Heston. And I won't.
I'm right there with ya. I had a great-aunt who had Alzheimers, and it was devastating to watch this once graceful, elegant woman deteriorate and slowly die in front of our eyes. It was a devastating thing to witness. I always say I wouldn't wish that type of death on my worst enemy. The fact that Clooney would not only make fun of someone suffering from that disease, but then be so remarkably flippant and unapologetic about his comment shows what a petty, miserable little person he is.
If I want to see Clooney, I turn on TVLand and watch him emote for the ages in episodes of those classics, "Facts of Life," and "Roseanne." He distinguished himself in 80's television by always playing the goofy doofus boyfriend of a main character.
Yeah. Move over, Cary Grant.
So many nominations for a box office bomb can only mean pretentious and boring. I would never watch a movie like this anyway.
I haven't spent any money on Heston movies since he desecrated the memories of 13 dead people in Columbine by going to Colorado to wave his rifle in the air a month later. Good thing for me, Heston isn't exactly making movies anymore for me to boycott.
So, the movie that isn't opening wide until next week is a "bomb"?
John, got a question for you.
If this movie featured Bill Murray instead of George Clooney, changing nothing else, do you think that you would have liked it better? It seems to me based on the clips and trailer (I'll be seeing it next week), that Reitman was going for a kind of slicker kind of Lost in Translation vibe. Awards-baiting nonewithstanding, Reitman at 32 is already putting together a formidable filmography.
I only ask about the recasting because the bulk of this discussion seems to have very little to do with the artistic merits of the film.
So, the main character (Clooney) is shown to be an emotionally distant person with very little understanding of how his actions truly affect others. The director, when putting a film together, has to make the compositions reflect the viewpoint of the focal characters. (for instance, Scorcese's famous shaky-cam work during the cocaine sequence in Goodfellas). The bit about the wedding ring seems to be consistent with the point of view of the lead character, who isn't made out to be a very virtuous or sympathetic person.
As a Midwesterner myself (Indianapolis), the one thing I don't particularly like about the region is the constant chip-on-the-shoulder, "you think you're better than me", take loud offence at every pereceived slight mentality that runs rampant there. Instead of freaking out over a joke in a movie about a diamond ring, maybe be happy that the criminally underappreciated Melanie Lynskey (of Heavenly Creatures fame) is finally starting to land roles in higher profile films.
As for Reitman, he's building up a pretty impressive body of work for a 32 year old filmmaker. What had you accomplished at that age?
Well, today's movie business is pretty damn corporate (Terry Gilliam could probably make his masterpiece just recreating the fiasco with Brazil and Universal). Besides, corporate executives who fail in the financial markets are often rewarded with gigantic severance packages when the leave the sinking ship. I would suspect that a wide majority of the people here actually admire Wall Street CEO's as being innovators or some such.
Clooney punching out David O. Russell on the set of Three Kings made him a hero amongst crew members far and wide.
Heh…Broken Flowers was a misfire and a half. Wicked cool soundtrack though, would never have discovered the amazing Ethiopiques series without it.
Given the storyline of Up in the Air, I'm not sure how either sentiment or flashier camerawork would have worked without being a bit jarring.
Todd,
Any movie that is financed, filmed, and released by a major studio goes through layers and layers of corporate nonsense (the story behind how Lord of the Rings went from Miramax to New Line reads like a corporate thriller at times). I suspect, just possibly, that most working filmmakers have seen quite enough of the corporate mentality to be able to properly convey it in their movies.
Wow, what must you have thought about Accidental Tourist. Now THAT was a sterile film.
Some political films can be both good stories as well as relatable. All the President's Men, Dr. Strangelove, Paths of Glory are three that come to mind.
I beg to differ that they don't have the slightest idea of what it's like to be a cube dweller. They have their impressions and from what I've seen, it's been that cube dwellers are near suicide or perpetually depressed. So I don't think they have an idea in the slightest.
So, using this logic, should 300 have not been made because Zach Snyder wasn't an ancient Spartan?
Actually, his first joke was "I guess we're not winning Best Director", because he had multiple nominations for Good Night and Good Luck and Syriana.
Stupid comparison. I won't even bite on it.
It wasn't just the one joke… it was the entire movie! If I was 32 and my daddy was a rich Holllywood director.. who knows. I may well have surpassed Jason's work! HA HA! We'll never know. I'm not a hair-trigger respondent to (most typically) NE U.S. condescension towards fly-ovah country. (I know the Reitmans are Canadian). I sat there for 2+ hours watching the movie. It wasn't a quick response to a remark.. it was my opinion after watching a (slightly overly) propped up Best PIcture nom. movie that people had worked on for a couple of years! Maybe the book is condescending and Reitman just went with the flow. I didn't read the book so I don't know. Joey Buttafuco was from Long Island, NY ad OJ and the OctoMom are in Cali. Riff-raff knows no bounds.. and that movie seemed to be lost on that point. I know the movie wasn't fixated on riff-raff.. but more "working class folks in the Midwest." We're all entitled to our opinions. I'll have to watch Goodfellas again. I wonder how it ages. I haven't seen it in years. I remember getting a bit of a headache when Ray L. was looking out for the 'copters spying on him. Melanie was great.. all the actors were great. Have a good one!
The biggest difference between Charlton Heston and George Clooney is this:
There are a lot of films that Charlton Heston starred in that I can't visualize another actor taking his place in and the movie being better. (Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, 55 Days at Peking, The Agony and the Ecstacy, Planet of the Apes, Will Penny to name a few.)
There isn't only one George Clooney movie (Brother, Where Art Thou) that I've seen that I can't imagine not being better if someone else had been the star.
Was this comment in reference to the Columbine shooting? Heston was defending his Constitutional right to bear arms. Heston didn't tell those disturbed, evil boys to take guns into the high school and do what they did. The blame rests squarely on there shoulders. If you are saying he was being insensitive then the choice is yours to feel that way.
Oh, good heavens! "their" not "there". I do know better. Brain not engaged.
I'll gladly take the hemmorhoids instead of a movie with Clooney any day…
Frankly, I don't know anything about Clooney's politics and am not interested. The point is he's a terrific leading man and he's very good in this movie. I agree that the movie loses its footing a bit in the third act, but overall it's a well-made, well-acted, thought-provoking piece of work.
Well said…as usual Mr. Nolte. Clooney will always be that grinning doofus on "Facts of Life" to me…er, damn…I did like "O Brother…", chalk that up to the Coens I guess.
John – thank you for confirming all my suspicions about the film. I can tell that it is excellently edited, sharply filmed and very well directed. The dialogue is snappy and Anna Kendrick looks superb. (I figured Kendrick was an up and comer ever since 'Twilight' where she made you remember her simply because of razor sharp timing and awesome body language.) But I won't see the film. It wasn't just because of the Heston cruelty, it's also because I just refuse any longer to tolerate films that turn contempt for ordinary humans into an art form.
what is so good about it. you should write a mini-review. When I try to read up on it through the interwebnet it is hard to tell if it is just campy or quality.
No, and you are making a informal logical falacy. I think it is called argumetum baculum.
but are not we all salieris in a way. I know I am. Just 97th percentile, that's all I ever will be, not equal to the true geniuses.
"I do, however, like director Jason Reitman — quite a bit, in fact. “Thank You For Smoking” and “Juno” "
Completely agree. He even made Rob Lowe quite funny.
Charlton Heston screeched "cold dead hands" in Colorado less than a month after 13 parents in Columbine had to bury their children. I think it's fair to say that many entertainers, no matter what their politics, have said things they ought not to have.
If this movie featured Bill Murray it would be called "Broken Flowers."
So, no… I'm really tired of these cold, subdued films terrified of sentiment. a "professorial" approach does wonders with the Awards Crowd because they're easy to fool with the idea that "sterile" must mean "insightful."
This monotone approach towards filmmaking is tired and best left to thrillers like "One Hour Photo."
Clooney is a sack of you know what. He will be a Cary Grant if he lived to be a 1000. I met Cary Grant the night he came back from the JFK award show in the early 80s and I had a chance to send some time with him, he was such a class act and one of a kind. Gene Kelly was there as well as my pal Tony Thomas who introduced me to these both legends.
What contempt for ordinary humans are you referring to? If you actually see the film, you'll see that it treats ordinary people with more respect than it does the prima donna lead characters.
Heston had nothing to do with that leftist insanity at Columbine. Those killing was the direct result of our school system teaching kids they come from monkey's why is everyone so shocked when they act like them? You take God,religion out of our society you promote life is cheap with abortion, this is all a surprise to you?? These punks didn't fear their parents, they took their guns, they didn't fear the law, the cops and prison so they killed their classmates and they didn't fear God so they blew with worthless brains out. The liberals will never take full responsibility for turning this country upside down so they blame conservatives and Heston was the head of the NRA, after all its the guns that kill people not the assholes who are carrying them. The second Amendment is there to protect us from mental cases in the cult of leftist malcontents that run are infected in this country.
Which God do you want put back in the classroom. If you say "Christian", may I ask which denomination of Christianity is to be preferred under this system? For instance, if we decided that all public schools would focus primarily on Catholicism, the evangelicals would be in a snit. And vice versa.
Heston's swaggering act in Colorado a month after Columbine was grossly insensitive.
What the other posters have said – I, too, had a close relative (my brilliant grandmother) suffer from "the long farewell" for several years before she died — definitely not a laughing matter. The remark was, as Nolte correctly put it, designed to put him at the "cool kids' table" (what? No lung cancer jokes for Paul Newman?)
As others before me have posted, he was not desecrating anyone's memory, he was talking about rights that still exist in the Constitution.
"Like Warren Beatty’s randy hairdresser, Ryan Bingham loves that his work brings him in contact with all kinds of female conquests and that the 300 days a year he spends travelling works as a free pass from any kind of emotional attachment, including one with his working class family back in Wisconsin."
Really? This is how what you reduce this movie too? What a shame you can't look past your own prejudice …
Rather than seeing that this movie is about the pace of modern existence destroying family and our connection to place you throw myopic rhetoric …
Bingham has one relastionship in the movie and the demise of 'domestic' relationship is hinted at. I'm not sure where you get … 'all kinds of female conquests' from?
Despite being caught up with the un-anchored pace of modern existence, the irony is that he finds honor in turning people away from that existence.
But now I've said too much because the word 'honor' and George Clooney could never be mention in the same sentence to you.
For being movie with such a 'lefty' actor, it sure does find a hell of a lot of honor in reconnecting us with the dignity of 'fly over' America and a small town wedding.
–I think this review shows that you've lost your way. Outrageous.
I saw the movie yesterday. I found it depressing and not quite held together by anything. There were a few good moments but at the end of the movie I found myself wishing someone had warned me away.
I would not recommend this movie.
I watched on http://efokat.com/movie/play/147/Up_In_The_Air_(2... and love it.. 4/5…
[...] Reviews: John Nolte at Big Hollywood Carl Kozlowski at Big Hollywood Christian Toto Debbie Schlussel James Bowman at the American [...]
George Clooney the best actor ever!
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