Up in the Air

Up in the Air Sale

With a job that has him traveling around the country firing people ryan bingham leads an empty life out of a suitcase until his company does the unexpected ground him. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 03/09/2010 Starring: George Clooney Run time: 109 minutes Rating: R Director: Jason Reitman

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Description

• ISBN13: 0097363503149
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Up in the Air transforms some painful subjects into smart, sly comedy--with just enough of the pain underneath to give it some weight. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) spends most of his days traveling around the country and firing people; he's hired by bosses who don't have the nerve to do their layoffs themselves. His life of constant flight suits him--he wants no attachments. But two things suddenly threaten his vacuum-sealed world: his company decides to do layoffs via video conference so they don't have to pay for travel, and Bingham meets a woman named Alex (Vera Farmiga, The Departed), who seems to be the female version of him… and of course, he starts to fall in love. Writer-director Jason Reitman is building a career from funny but thoughtful movies about compromised people--a pregnant teen in Juno, a cigarette-company executive in Thank You for Smoking. George Clooney has a gift for playing smart men who aren't quite as smart as they think they are (Michael Clayton, Out of Sight). The combination is perfect: Bingham is charming and sympathetic but clearly missing something, and Up in the Air captures that absence with clarity and compassion. The outstanding supporting cast includes Anna Kendrick (Rocket Science), Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Danny McBride (Pineapple Express), Melanie Lynskey (Away We Go), and others, each small part pitched exactly right. --Bret Fetzer

Up in the Air Customer Review


The sophisticated comedy of manners, which saw its heyday in cinema with the films of Ernst Lubitsch and Howard Hawks, went out of style so long ago that it sometimes seems like a lost art. As one who appreciates this particular kind of comedy, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that Up in the Air is, in many respects, a comedy of manners in the Howard Hawks vein.

Sure-footed and seasoned professional George Clooney engages in love-duel with his intellectual equal, Hawksian woman Vera Farmiga, while tutoring the equally competent but less experienced Anna Kendrick. It's all done in rapid-fire banter of the type that was Hawks' comedic trademark. It makes me wonder if director Jason Reitman was thinking of Hawks when he made this film.

Of course, this film is about unemployment and the Great Recession, so the comedy has to be tinged with a shot of realism, and the story does take a few detours to highlight the superficiality of the main character's lifestyle, but for me Up in the Air was a welcome reminder that Hollywood still appreciates urbane humor. If you do too, then I think you'll like Up in the Air.

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