Up in the Air (2009)

You would have to look far and wide to find a reviewer who didn't like this one, and Jack, Amy, Rachel, and I vote with the majority. The hype brought dozens of moviegoers to the early opening at 2:00 PM on a work day. I loved director Jason (son of Ivan, who directed the comedies Ghost Busters (1984), Legal Eagles (1986), Dave (1993), and, of course, Meatballs (1979) and Stripes (1981), among others) Reitman's other two movies, Thank You for Smoking (2005) and Juno (2007), and this shares more than a few elements of both. 

The leads are cynical yet hopeful and Anna Kendrick's Natalie reminded me of Ellen Page's Juno: petite, smart, and mouthy. George Clooney (see The Men Who Stare at Goats for my recent comments) is flying high with this role (the NY Film Critics split his acting award between this and Fantastic Mr. Fox) and I can't imagine anyone else occupying the character Ryan, who fires people for a living, so fully. I did not see Kendrick in the Twilight movies, but did enjoy her as the debater in the excellent Rocket Science (2007), and neither tightly wound character prepared me for seeing her on Letterman the other night with a lush mane of curly hair and a tiny little dress. Vera Farmiga (last year's powerful The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Departed (2006), more) fills out the main cast as the lovely Alex. 

The movie was adapted by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Turner adapted the 1974 movie The Longest Yard into a vehicle for Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, and Burt Reynolds, which helped me while away a plane ride a few years ago) from a novel of the same name by Walter Kirn (also wrote the novel Thumbsucker, from which the entertaining and edgy 2005 movie was adapted). In fact, every filmmaker above, except Ivan Reitman, has won or been nominated several times for this movie (here's my list in progress). Two interesting trivia bits from imdb (the link has a third bit that I consider to be a spoiler): 1. almost all of the people (not Zach Galifianakis (HBO's Bored to Death, The Hangover, more) whose character's firing is in the trailer, nor J.K. Simmons (Juno's dad, Burn After Reading, I Love You, Man, all Spider-Man movies, others) who are fired in the movie are real people who were laid off. The filmmakers placed ads in St. Louis and Detroit looking for participants in a "documentary." 2. Reitman began work on the movie in 2002, but his other two features came along first, which gave this one the advantage of being released in a real-live recession (or use the term of your choice). 

Jason Bateman (TV's Arrested Development, Juno, Hancock (2008), Extract, more) is good in it, comedy guy Danny McBride (Tropic Thunder, and others that I liked less) is, too, and, as Ryan's sisters, Melanie Lynskey (Shattered Glass (2003), Away We Go, and many others) and stage actress Amy Morton provide exactly the right touches. The aerial photography is great (I, too, like to look out the window in airplanes). Apparently Jason Reitman flies a lot and personally perfected some of the methods to get through security checkpoints shown in the movie. Product placement: American Airlines, Hilton hotels, and Hertz are featured prominently. This inspired me to go to the desk afterwards to make sure that I got my points and free Wednesday popcorn coupon even though I have misplaced my theatre's loyalty card. 

Bonus: a song during the latter part of the credits has a cute verbal intro. I suggest you stay to hear it, even though you can hear a live version from my link. Some people are upset it may not be eligible for an Oscar, nor will the Brad Smith song in this article and clip at the bottom..