Up In The Air
This is not the type of movie I usually see in the theaters first. Even if it’s an excellent movie this is a type of movie I typically grab as a rental or purchase. It just so happens that when TheJoe and I were out and found the opportunity to see this movie, we took it.
Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, whose job takes him on the road almost every day of his life, and he thrives on it. He is a master at simplifying and streamlining his life, so much so that he sometimes speaks about it, encouraging people to look hard at what is in their life’s backpack and do what they can to lighten the load. He even applies this philosophy to his job where he fires people companies don’t have the guts to fire themselves, including one interesting sequence with newly-fired Bob (played by J.K. Simmons), with Bingham spinning the situation as an opportunity to start on a goal that Bob had long-since abandoned.
Clooney does indeed bring his trademark charm to his role. Bignham is charming, likable, sure of himself. What separates this role from others Clooney has had is how he uses this skills to separate himself from other people. To him, relationships are the heaviest weights one can carry around, and his lifestyle gives him the perfect distance from others. It’s in an ironic twist where a young hire (Natale, played by Amanda Keener) develops a way to do his job via webcam, thus separating humanity from the process further and negating the need for a travel budget that Bingham must pause and look at his life.
There’s some issues in this film that we have all had to face at some time or another. The choice we make with family and work and the balance we try to achieve. And if there was ever a movie that showed the value of the journey versus the goal to achieve, this is it. While there’s some amusing comedic moments in here, the tone is more dramatic with some great comedic actors (J. K. Simmons, Jason Bateman, Melanie Lynskey, and Danny McBride) turning in some solid “straight” performances. It’s also filmed pretty simply as well, although I don’t know what hoops you have to go through to film at an airport these days, that must have been the exciting part for the producers. But as much travelling as happens in this film, it never overshadows the characters.
At the end, I felt it was worth the price of a movie ticket. Matinee. And I think it would be worth a rental. I’m glad I saw it. It’s a very solid drama with some amusing moments that shows it’s not just technology that separates people. Sometimes people separate themselves.
Up
I saw this with the whole clan at the El Capitan, complete with opening live show and full digital 3D presentation.
The thing is, with a the bells and whistles attached to the screening I attended, I felt it was all the kind of things that would be used by marketing to help hype the audience for a lesser flick. And I feel that speaks highly to the ability of Pixar’s “Up” to stand on it’s own, and hints at its ability to stand the test of time.
The story concerned grumpy old man Carl Fredrickson (Ed Asner) fulfilling the wish he shared with his late wife of traveling and making a home by a waterfall in South America. This path has him run across characters like annoying ‘Wilderness Explorer’ Russell (Jordan Nagai), ‘talking’ dog Dug (director/writer Bob Peterson) and a large bird named Kevin.
No doubt you’ve seen the trailers or billboards with the house being hoisted by about a million balloons. The start of the story deals actually deals with Carl’s life and times with his wife in a very touching and almost wordless sequence. Pixar did an amazing job with this sequence and took a risk, I believe. Some people had concerns with the wordless tale-telling at the beginning of Wall-E, but personally, I say it works. Why? Because it’s a MOVIE! A visual story medium. Many other studios would have simply stuck a voiceover describing Carl’s history, but in showing Carl’s life the way they did, it actually made you sympathetic to a supposedly ‘unmarketable’ old man, couple with the fact that you are more than willing to go along with the totally insane idea that someone can fly a house simply because they attached a bunch of helium balloons through their chimney and stuck curtains outside the house to steer.
As much as the characters of this story are well rounded and interesting, the humor of the film is excellent. I can actually say I laughed out loud at this film.
Pixar has shown once again that they are masters of the computer animated movie. All the visuals and animation are incredible. This was made in 3D and some of the visuals are quite impressive when seen in a digital-projection 3D theater, but again this movie could easily stand on its own without it.
That being said, I’d definitely recommend seeing it in the theater. In 3D. I’d see it again that way. This is a very well done film that I believe anyone can enjoy. Go see it.