What's Up

Today, I went to see one of the movies that's been picking up some "award buzz" lately, Up in the Air. It's the latest from director Jason Reitman, who a couple years back did Juno, one of my favorites from that year. To hear the way many critics were talking about this new movie, it was every bit as good -- maybe better.

I didn't think quite as highly of it. The comparisons between the two really can't be that direct, but both movies do try to blend lots of emotional textures. Up in the Air has moments of sweetness, humor, drama, and more.

I suspect some measure of the great reaction this movie has had is due to the personal history that many audience members will bring with them into the theater. The story of this movie revolves around a character who spends 320 days out of the year on the road, working for a company that's contracted by other companies to come in and fire or lay off employees -- to perform the actual sitting in the room, delivering the bad news to the victims.

Thus, the movie can land close to home on at least two levels. Some people know too well the life of constantly being on the road for work. Many more can relate to having lost a job. Even years after being laid off myself, there were moments in this film that made me think, "oh yeah, I've been there." There were still other moments that made me think that certain friends of mine might best not see this movie right now, given things going on in their lives.

In any case, I did feel the movie did a pretty good job of mixing things up in an entertaining way. But I also found that it did so in a somewhat muted way. The laughs are never that great, the highs not that high, the lows not that low. It's good, but not as great (in my view) as many critics are saying.

The cast is pretty good, though. George Clooney isn't really called on to do much more than charm as he's done in countless other films, but there are a lot of gems in the rest of the cast. His character's young "apprentice," played by Anna Kendrick, and unlikely love interest, played by Vera Farmiga, are the more compelling characters in the film. Jason Bateman and Danny McBride are good in smaller roles. And a few others show up for just a single scene and make a big impact, such as Zach Galifianakis and Sam Elliott. The best of these "one scene roles" though, is J.K. Simmons. He shows up as one of the poor workers being fired, and it's one of the best scenes of the movie.

Up in the Air far from being one of my favorites of 2009, but it's arguably not an unworthy contender for award recognition. My own rating would be a B-.