Up In the Air - Why this is not the best film of 2009  
| It's tough seeing a heavily hyped film after hearing all the accolades. Expectations run too high and the film almost automatically disappoints. I tried to keep my expectations from running wild when I sat down to finally watch Up in the Air after it had been named the "best film of the year" by so many critics associations and nominated for so many awards. I had loved Jason Reitman's previous films and figured I would love Up in the Air too. Well... while it turned out to be a very good film, I do not believe that this film is even in the top ten of the best films of 2009.
As I stated already, I think Up in the Air is a very good movie. I just don't think it is great. Why not? Let me count the ways...
I do believe that Jason Reitman is an exceptional talent and he tells his story very well. It's just not that interesting a story. I get the fascination with emptiness and search for meaning themes but they do start to run tired after a while. I don't know if Up in the Air offers anything original on these ruminations. It feels like a bit of a retread. The script is passable but not brilliant. It just felt standard to me. I felt like anyone could have written it.
Still, Reitman excels and raises the material to heights it probably doesn't deserve. This film convinces me he is a film maker to watch, even when he tackles something pedestrian like this.
Still, the whole film is a little smug. Clooney is in his too-cool-for-school mode and and whole film follows suit. There is something misanthropic about the film. A tone that feels like it is above the very kind of connections that it is (eventually) espousing are necessary for human beings. It's like it thinks it doesn't need to try because it's already so cool. Well, I would have preferred if the film managed to be a little less slick and a little grittier. Often it feels like it goes through the motions. The relationships are all a bit constructed, and not in a way that would symbolically convey the theme of the film but in a way that feels like lazy writing.
There is no chemistry between Clooney and his love interest Farmiga. I never cared about their love story and therefore the ending had little to no impact on me. And I know Kendrick is getting a lot of buzz for her cute and perky performance but generally I was unimpressed. Especially through her "being dumped" scene. This was played for laughs and was far too corny and clunky for my tastes. Later she is better in a "firing" scene... but one scene doesn't make a whole performance.
And Clooney isn't doing anything here that he hasn't done before. He has been much better in other films. Here he almost feels like he's phoning it in. Again, I don't believe that's a stylistic choice expressing the lack of inner depth of his character. I think it is just that there isn't much for him to do here.
Finally, I kept looking at my watch. I kept waiting for it to end. I wish I had a fast forward button at certain moments. And when it did finally end... it didn't. It was like Return of the King in that it just kept having one ending after another. I kept thinking it was about to be over and then it wasn't.
I know this film is a lock for the Best Picture Oscar but I think this is too bad. It's not a bad film (and we all know many bad films have won Best Picture Oscars) but it is by far not the greatest film of the year. It's a competent and pleasant film that shows a promising director who is one to watch.
| |
