Up in the Air

George Clooney stars in this character-driven movie based on a book of the same name by Walter Kirn. He plays an emotionally stunted man who basically lives on an airplane and in airports flying to different parts of the United States firing people for a job. A crack opens in his armor when he meets a fellow traveler Alex played by the beautiful Vera Farmiga. Her presence in his life seems to open him up to other humans like a career driven newbie he mentors and to his two sisters, one who is getting married. Before he meets Alex, he’s not a mean man, he just happily exists in his bubble air world existing on superficial relationships with airline employees and drinking in hotel bars. I liked this movie a lot, yet didn’t love this movie as I thought I would. Maybe I was expecting too much. Before I went to the movie I read fantastic reviews and heard a really compelling interview with the writer Kirn and the director, Jason Reitman, on Fresh Air with Terry Gross which made the movie all the more interesting. (Reitman also directed Thank You for Smoking, and Juno) Don’t get me wrong, I liked Up in the Air a lot and George Clooney and Vera Farmiga were great. I just thought I was going to be more wowed.