Movie Review: Up in the Air

All I have for noncommercial movie fans this time is the series of French movies at the Murdock on Fridays. But this week’s offering is the rather notorious Betty Blue, from 1986, with a reportedly steamy opening and some grim violence before it’s over, in the story of a schizoid sexpot and her buddy traveling about France while the lady cracks up; the tone is supposedly lighter than you might expect, and that’s about all I can say about Pretty Blue, 7:30 Friday in the Murdock Theatre, 536 North Broadway.

But if the noncommercial program is a little thing this week, we have considerable consolation in one of the best grownup movies of recent years, Up in the Air. Up in the Air flirts around the edges of Hollywood stereotype and cliché from start to finish, but like the current movement represented by Juno and An Education, treats its material in a light, realistic manner devoid of melodrama or sentimentality or farce, as if producer/writer/director Jason Reitman actually took life seriously and not just as a source of stock entertainment.

George Clooney, a traveling expert at firing people whose bosses are too chicken to do the dirty work themselves, is a professional rather than a villain, and young upcomer competition Anna Kendrick seems a tad worse because she prefers to save money by doing the nasty job by telecommunication. When boss Jason Bateman assigns the two of them to go touring about so Kendrick can learn Clooney’s techniques, you naturally think, O Lord, here comes another Tracy/Hepburn story about hate turning to love, with some November/May stuff thrown in, I’ve seen it so many times. And you just know that Vera Farmiga, as the older woman Clooney mates up with when their airline schedules cross, will turn into a villain, or else, if the movie avoids that stereotype, will eventually regain her youth and win Clooney, and you’ve seen those before, too.

But Up in the Air skirts the clichés and stereotypes every time, exploiting your expectations with surprises that give Up in the Air a realistic feel that gave me, at least, enormous satisfaction. I have been in discussions about the distribution of justice and happiness at the end, but the more I think about the ending, the more satisfied I am.

The surprise, besides the general maturity of though reflected, is Anna Kendrick, whose kewpie-doll-cute face should have stood in unsatisfying contrast to her apparently unhumane professional practices. But she never acts cute, or less than intelligent, and in the context of the Jason Bateman business world, she doesn’t seem worse than youthfully unaware of the tragedies she is contributing to in doing the job that, after all, does have to be done. Time constraints in developing relationships in two hours eventually flaw her role a little, maybe, and somewhat the same may be true of Clooney; but I’ve learned that not everybody interprets these characters the same way I do, and we all are generally happy with what transpires. Farmiga has no problems along these lines at all. Producer/writer/director Jason Reitman does not judge anybody, and there’s a good chance you won’t, either.

You may be a little puzzled as to what bridge in Wichita anybody would try to commit suicide by jumping off, but otherwise, Up in the Air should satisfy anybody who wants intelligent entertainment.