Up in the Air.

[starlady]

Irony, thy name is air travel. Since I was just informed that my first flight of the evening has been delayed, jeopardizing my connection (no matter what the gate agent says, we'll have to hustle once we reach Detroit, if we do land on time), I might as well write this up now, particularly since the film may wind up being a tribute to an era that may be passing, security-wise. (The irony here is that at my dad's insistence we arrived at the airport 2.5 hours before our flight was scheduled to depart and have sat around since then.)

So, Up in the Air. It's hard to think of a more topical film, in some ways--George Clooney flies around the country firing people. I liked the movie, and I thought it did a good job of not condescending to anyone, except perhaps to the young Cornell grad whose visions for shaking up Clooney's Omaha-based company lead to her being told to accompany Clooney, by their boss, on one of his unending jaunts around the country. The movie uses actual people, non-actors, who were actually fired in the last year during the firing scenes, which frequently are quietly wrenching. I also really liked the plot; it's a conventional story until the movie twists the knife you didn't realize it had planted squarely in your heart, and hard. It was a nicely legible film, too; I've decided that when I can supply the lines the characters aren't saying it's the mark of a well-delineated character in a fine script. The film resists the conventional ending (though after I left the theater I thought of a slightly less obvious interpretation of it that is arguably slightly more hopeful), as well as the conventional characterization of romance plots to some extent: over the course of the film Clooney's character starts wanting more emotions in his relationship with a fellow air warrior, which is supposedly a female characteristic in most Hollywood films.

But yes, part of what I enjoyed so much about this movie was the travel geekery, and the way the camera lingers reverently on the ritualistic aspects of going through airport security, as well as Clooney's character explaining systematic approaches to going through security and travel. I think that way myself, whether naturally or through experience, and it's always a shock to me to remember that other people don't necessarily. And while I'm not willing to pay the emotional costs of becoming a 10 million mile frequent flyer, as a concept, I think it would be really damn cool.

I find that when I travel (and more so when I travel alone) I tend to start thinking rather nasty things about the people around me in the planes and terminals, for all sorts of spurious and snap-judgment reasons, and though I know it's ridiculous and execrable, it's proven a hard mental habit to short-circuit. This interior isolation, from my better nature and from other people, is what I dislike about flying, rather than any aspect of the experience itself (my ears haven't popped on the ascent or descent in more than ten years, for instance), and a lot of the questions the movie explored resonated with me for that reason; I think the film does a good job of demonstrating how alienating travel can be, despite Clooney's character's initial claims that he's not alone because he's always surrounded by people--which is true as far as it goes, but no further. And, too, the shots of the country at 30,000 feet were pretty cool.

Comments

[stoicana.livejournal.com]

And here I was planning to not watch the movie because it sounded like it could turn out to be the stereotypical romantic comedy.

I now want to see this movie.

This interior isolation, from my better nature and from other people, is what I dislike about flying...

I know what you mean. I stick my headphones in, pull my book out, and avoid any and all eye contact possible.

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

It is not stereotypical in the end, I can assure you.

I now want to see this movie.

I liked it a lot, if you couldn't tell. It's very funny, too, both verbally and visually.