Jason Reitman received a "Best Screenplay" Golden Globe for his newest drama, 'Up in the Air' (Along with co-screenwriter Sheldon Turner). 'Up in the Air' received many Golden Globe nominations and a Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor, George Clooney. In the end, it only received an award for Best Screenplay which was well-deserved. Despite the plot's simplicity, it wasn't the usual, predictable melodrama.
The bulk of the movie takes place in airports and hotels around the United States. My parents actually saw George Clooney in Omaha while they were filming there. There is even a quick scene in Des Moines, my hometown, but I'm not entirely sure whether or not George Clooney was actually there. The story revolves around Ryan Bingham (George Clooney). Bingham has mastered the art of firing people. With the recession causing massive layoffs around the United States, companies hire people like Bingham to fire their employees for them. Bingham is an independently happy traveling business man with very few goals for the future except to fly ten millions miles (or something like that). While he is flying from city to city, he also gives inspirational speeches about living without commitments which he calls "Ryan Bingham: What's in your Backpack?"Ryan Bingham's boss is Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman). I like Jason Bateman for his work in 'Arrested Development' but he always seems to be playing the same generic characters in every movie I see him in. There is a rumor of an 'Arrested Development' movie? If that is true, I'm willing to forgive him. Sometimes I feel like the characters were written to be played by Bateman because his dialogue is all so similar. It bothers me, but it isn't necessarily bad.
Anna Kendrick plays Natalie Keener, a young woman fresh out of college and looking to improve the business of firing people. At first I found her voice to be shrill and unbearable but as the movie progressed she began to grow on me. Her character just seemed very real. There was very subtle character growth. Then I saw that Anna Kendrick plays Jessica in the Twilight movies. Shame on you Anna Kendrick!!!
'Up in the Air' captures our present day era while balancing comedy and romance. The plot is twisted, ironic and completely exceeds my expectations. I hate that I haven't written a single bad review on my blog yet, but the sad and unprofessional truth is that I don't watch bad movies. I rate 'Up in the Air' an "awesome" and "entertaining" 73 out of 100. Not a life changing movie, but worth seeing in theaters.
1. I adore Arrested Development and would be incredibly thrilled if this alleged rumor was true.
ReplyDelete2. Anna Kendrick plays functionally the same character in an indie movie called "Rocket Science." I absolutely adore her, however, I'm beginning to doubt her acting abilities due to a. Her epic failure in "Twilight" and b. The fact that I'm hesitant to believe she's a very versatile female actor at this early stage in her career.
-Rhonda