“Up In The Air”

I had some preconceptions about Up In The Air, mainly that it would be a Miserable White Guilt Showcase, in which millionaire actors and filmmakers pretend to care about poor people.  Thankfully, it’s not about that (too much, anyway), and it turned out to be better than I anticipated.

George Clooney gives another solid performance in a film that mirrors our current situation in some way.  It’s his calling card, and he Clooneys the hell out of this movie. Vera Farmiga plays a hot older professional lady who gets boned by The Cloon every now and then. 

One annoying thing that director Jason Reitman does is use people that were actually fired to play the employees that Clooney’s character has to fire.  I guess this was to add verisimilitude, but it mainly interrupts a film that’s essentially an actor’s showcase with blips of crappy acting. (I feel bad about them getting fired, though.)

Another strike against the movie:  the neverending Emo Singer-Songwriter soundtrack.  That last act, especially, seems to overdose on Hypersensitive Douchebag Folk Music.  The third strike, and then I’m out: After watching the movie, I read that the running time was 109 minutes.  It feels at least two and a half hours long.

Up In The Air is a good film, much better than most, that I won’t be rewatching for several decades at least.

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