Oscar season is fast approaching and as we get closer to March 7th, ThatMovieSucked.com will begin pumping out more and more Oscar-related content. Hurray? You’re damn right ‘hurray’.
Today will feature a review of Up in the Air, a film nominated for Best Picture as well as garnering George Clooney a Best Actor in a Leading Role nod.
Up in the Air aptly stars the notorious bachelor as a traveling businessman who considers relationships and other people, excess baggage. When a change in his company threatens to make his solo, traveling lifestyle obsolete, a chain of events begins which forces him to re-evaluate the way he lives his life and the role other people should play in it – if any.
Likeable as always, Clooney’s natural charisma carries this film. His character, Ryan Bingham, is the typical charming, smirking character that Clooney usually plays, but it still works. Strong performances by Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick round out the cast and it’s not surprising that they themselves both score Best Actress in a Supporting Role nominations – even though most audience members will probably want to slap Kendrick’s “Natalie Keener” character. Keener indeed.
There’s been a fair amount of buzz for this movie, no doubt due to (or reflected by) the film’s multiple Academy Award nominations. However, as solid as the film was, it would be quite the upset for it to take top honours. It’s not so much a criticism of any specific failing of the film as it is praise for the superiority of other films in the same category. It is possible that Farmiga or Kendrick may yet snag a statue, but Clooney and director Jason Reitman shouldn’t hold their collective breath.
But as good as the movie was, its timing of being released during a global recession may have a lot do with why it was nominated for so many awards, rather than purely being a worthy contender. Clooney’s role as a man who fires people for a living, and the inevitable recurring scenes of random person getting fired after random person getting fired, no doubt resonated with audiences and the academy. Even though the novel this film was based on was released in 2001 – well before the recession caused the job market to fall apart – the film’s heavy job loss theme probably swayed a few votes its way. Does that invalidate the movie’s worth? Absolutely not, but it might explain why a “very good” movie is listed among far superior candidates for Oscar gold.
But nomination value aside, Up in the Air is a solid movie that is sharply written, charming, and features some great performances from everyone involved. The personalizing of a topic like mass layoffs is no easy feat, and it was presented in an entertaining story which keeps an audience invested from beginning to end. Certainly, Up in the Air is one of the strongest releases of 2009 – it’s just not the Best Picture.
