Review of Up in the Air

Up in the Air is a movie about a man who flies around the country telling people they’re fired. He does the dirty work for employers who are too cowardly to do the deed themselves. But he tries to do this in the most humane way possible, attempting to convince the terminated that their firing represents an opportunity rather than financial ruin. He loves his job because he loves to be up in the air. Being up in the air prevents him from having to deal with all the obligations and encumbering relationships most of us are subject to. He even has a side gig as a motivational speaker in which he encourages people to keep all their baggage in life including their personal relationships to a bare minimum. He says people will be happier if they can carry all they need in a single backpack. But this man, Ryan Bingham, played by the immaculately sharp and ultra-slick George Clooney, discovers in the course of the film that his life philosophy is flawed.

Everything in Bingham’s life is just as he wants it to be until two unexpected events occur. First, he meets a woman, fittingly, at a hotel bar. Her name is Alex Goras, played by Vera Farmiga. She and Ryan appear to be perfectly kindred spirits. She tells him as much when she memorably comments that she is the same as him, except with a vagina. They hit it off winningly and their on-screen chemistry is something to behold. As much as he wants to maintain a casual relationship with Alex, a part of him wants something real for a change.

The second event is spurred by the appearance by a young, ambitious hotshot fresh out of Cornell. She is Natalie Keener played by Anna Kendrick. Keener is new to the company and appears to have properly impressed Bingham’s boss, the amoral Craig Gregory, played by Jason Bateman. Keener has a bright idea to save the company money on travel. She suggests a plan of informing people about the news of their termination of employment via video conference.

It is ironic that Bingham, a man who values isolation and impersonal relationships more than most, appears to be the one who most readily sees the flaw in delivering such personal and life-altering news in such an unfeeling manner. But of course he also is out to save his own skin. He doesn't want to be grounded, reduced to existing in his Spartan one-bedroom apartment. To prevent this from happening, Bingham suggests to his boss that he should take Keener on the road with him so she can see how her ideas might play out in reality rather than theory.

In the course of their travels, Keener is also forced to re-evaluate her own ideas about life when her boyfriend, the one she’d followed to God-forsaken Omaha, breaks up with her via text message. The irony of being broken up with in such a callous manner compared to her own proposed method of delivering equally devastating news to others is not lost on her. Keener appears to become human after this experience and all three of the principle characters bond. In a pivotal scene, Keener lectures Bingham about the shallowness of his character and berates him for not giving Alex a chance to have a real relationship with him. Bingham appears to heed her words when he invites Alex to join him to his sister’s wedding.

On the day of the ceremony, Bingham is thrust into the uncomfortable and ironic position of attempting to convince his potential brother-in-law to go through with the marriage when he gets a case of cold feet on his wedding day. “Everyone needs a wing man,” Bingham declares, and he appears to mean it as much for himself as the man he is talking to.

It appears that Bingham’s moral transformation completes itself when he steps up to speak at his “backpack seminar” only to hear his words ringing depressingly false to his own ears. He catches a plane to Chicago to pursue Alex in what appears to be a scene straight out of Jerry Maguire.

The finale of the movie is as honest and uncompromising as the film itself.


The reactions of people to the news that they have been terminated struck me as very realistic and heart wrenching as it should have been, considering many of them were non-actors recounting their real experience on hearing this hateful news. The soundtrack was also very cool and smooth, contributing to the general feel of the movie.

The film was directed by Jason Reitman who also directed Thank You for Smoking and Juno. Having seen these movies, it’s easy to spot some common themes that Reitman is apparently interested in. He likes to explore the characters of people who should be unlikable and making us root for them. In this film, he accomplishes this task with great success.

Although the movie’s subject matter is depressing, I left it feeling uplifted. The movie is so well done and honest that it would be impossible to have done otherwise. It also seems to make a statement about human existence in general. What ultimately makes our lives meaningful, it seems to say, are the relationships we form with other people. Without them, we are just up in the air.