MOVIE REVIEW - Up In The Air

George Clooney is back and this time it's Up In The Air. For those of you let down, or left scratching you head at The Men Who Stare At Goats, here's a Clooney redeemer! You've heard that this is a "recession" movie... and it is.....but it is more than that. This movie is just flat out fantastic!

UITA is the story of Ryan (Clooney). Ryan is about 45. He works for an Omaha based company that goes around the country and fires people from their jobs, when the company doing the firing doesn't have the guts to do it. Ryan flies in, fires people, and movies on to the next job. He's on the road 300 days a year. Enter Natalie (Anna Hendrick) She is a 23 year old Cornell graduate who thinks that doing this job over the web is a better idea to ease costs. So to learn the job better she travels with Ryan out in the field to learn the ropes. Ryan too, is having a sort of romance with Alex (Vera Farminga) on the road who also works out of a suitcase in an unrelated field.

Truth is, Ryan has no life. No connection to the real world. No people or the responsibility that goes with any kind of relationship. Is he lonely? What can he learn from these two new women in his life, and his detached family? Is he real or is he a phony? Can he live this way his whole life? Is his the next job to be eliminated? You end up caring about these main characters and want the best for them. That is UITA.

Up In The Air is a movie about realism. Everything about it is real. From people losing their jobs to the people whose job it is to have them lose it. It by no means makes light of this. But it does bring it home on film. The characters are terrific. Very strong,and developed very well. And every character brought into the movie as it moves along, real again. UITA is a movie you have to stick with. It makes you a bit uncomfortable at first, then eases up on you. It starts out as one kind of movie and ends up another in it's raw form. But everything about this movie is great. Really great!

This is a good example again of every great movie starts with a great story. And this is a great story. Characters and a story line you have not seen before, and turns you don't see coming. This movie is NOT predictable, and it does keep you guessing all the way through. It has something to say, and says it. It's a movie for our econimic times. It's honest, and it talks directly to different generations and socioeconomic groups.

Clooney is fantastic as the enigmatic Ryan. And Farminga is wonderful as the sexy Alex. But Anna Kendrick is absolutely fabulous as the eyes wide open, straight laced Natalie. She is a fresh face and steals a scene or two in this movie. UITA needed a hero to put it over the top and she is it. She was a great casting decision, and is the separator for the film. Over all this movie is well cast and wonderfully done!

Up In The Air. The best movie of the year in 2009....and not by a little.