Kelly Monster

I didn’t have a whole lot of expectations going into this movie, I figured I was in good hands though considering that Jason Reitman gave us both Juno and Thank You For Smoking, two excellent movies.

This movie was well written, witty, and at times almost uncomfortably truthful.

This movie was really about the characters, and how they evolved.

George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham who fires people for a living, all over the country, so he pretty much lives on an airplane. I would love to have a job like that, I mean, a job that allows you to travel–firing people all the time would be horrible.

Because he lives out of a suitcase, Bingham is kind of a loner whose relationships are usually on a casual basis. He never intends to settle down. The fewer attachments he has to things, the better.

My favorite character (besides Zach Galifianakis’s cameo, I love that guy) was Natalie. She is new at the firing firm that Ryan Bingham also works for. She is young and full of ideas, and so she suggests that instead of firing people in person, that they do it through teleconferencing. This is a good idea in theory, but because she has never been in the field, she doesn’t realize that this is a bad idea. I loved her spunk, she believed that if she went to college, graduated at the head of her class, and got a good job that she would eventually find the man of her dreams and settle down. She even knows how many kids she is going to have. Things don’t exactly turn out the way she planned. In fact almost nothing goes the way she thought it would. Sometimes when you follow all the rules, the Universe smacks you in the face with different plans. Told you this movie was painfully honest.

Natalie is almost the polar opposite of Ryan Bingham, and I loved seeing the two characters interact. They both needed a little bit of what the other was serving up.

This movie was so thought provoking that I wasn’t even sure if I liked it or not. Don’t get me wrong I no problem with intelligent films, or thinking for that matter I just think the best movies are the ones you have to mull over for a couple of days. The verdict is finally in, and I loved it. It is probably one of the best films I’ve seen all year. This movie was so relevant, people all over the country are losing their jobs and this movie really captured the emotions you go through when something like that happens. Working in film production like I do, there are times when you are out of work—you know, between episodes and what not— so this film hit home for me. Not knowing what is going to happen after you finished up a job, wondering when you’ll find one again. It’s tough.

The subject matter of this movie sounds grim, but it was uplifting in some ways and hilariously funny at others. This movie takes you on a roller coaster ride of emotions, like all good films should.

Want to hear more about what people are saying about Up in the Air? Take a trip over to Reel Artsy to hear what my fellow filmgirl force member, Karen, has to say about it.

Still not enough? Film Gurl of the filmgirl force has a lot to say too.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 1:27 am and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.