Up in The Air January 21 tutorial review "A" marked.

When in ten years Jason Reitman's Up in the Air will be recalled by critics, 2009 will be remembered as the 1929 of the Noughties and Reitman as the man who gave that mess a human touch.


As already seen in his previous movies, 2005's Thank You for Smoking and 2007's neat Juno, the director lays out the same plan: to puzzle the beholder with a load of preconceptions as a gladiator would do tossing a fistful of dust against his opponent in the arena, just to find the best moment to launch his final attack.

Don't make mistakes then and don't fool yourself with the apparent lack of dignity of Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) who plays the classic shark in a suit while he cross-flies the U.S. from Omaha to Miami via St. Louis as a "career transition" counselor, in other words an employee sacker, "landed by companies who don't have the guts to lay off their own employees".

Being on the road up to 320 days a year ("which means I spend 45 miserable days at home", he explains) he's become used to the so called Airlife, the business-class commuter life, which includes "cheap sushi" as a meal, cabin seats as a couch, casual acquaintances as friends and loneliness as a way of life.

He actually enjoys it so much he couldn't live otherwise. But Bingham's world and aims will be put in discussion by the young and naive Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), the company beginner who needs her first training on the road, and by Alex Goran, a casual acquaintance meant to become something more than "casual".

Up in the Air represents a vivid puzzle of shattered humanity lost among relationship, jobs, family bonds and careers: it's up to the beholder to find the right placing of every single piece.