MOVIE REVIEW: Up In The Air

Jason Reitman's previous film was the adorable Juno, for which he was nominated for Best Director and Ellen Page received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. His latest film Up in the Air stars Oscar-winner George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick.

The story is about Ryan Bingham, whose job is firing people for firms who can't stomach dropping the axe themselves and who has used his position to rack up an incredible number of frequent flyer miles. He is a man who spends most of his time in transit, eschewing connections with other people.

Anna Kendrick plays a colleague of Clooney's who is forced to travel with him and who challenges his isolationist world view, but Clooney meets Vera Farmiga's character Alex who is also obsessed with earning frequent flyer miles.

Several film critics have awarded their Best Picture award to Up in the Air and Entertainment Weekly has officially granted the film frontrunner status in the Oscar Best Picture race by placing Clooney, Kendrick and Farmiga on the cover but I must respectfully disagree. There's no way that Up in the Air is remotely as good as Reitman's first film Juno, and that earned a Best Picture nomination in a tougher field.

I think it's a reasonably good film, but not one of the ten best of the year.


Running Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes.
MPAA Rating: R [See Full Rating] for language and some sexual content.
Director: Jason Reitman.

OVERALL GRADE: B/B+ (3.25/4.0).

ACTING: A-.
IMAGERY: B-.
PLOT: B+.
IMPACT: B+ .