Though I’m very much a film appreciator, 2009 wasn’t a great movie year for me. I just didn’t make it out to the theater more than a handful of times, and several of those were disappointments on one level or another – Terminator: Salvation and Nine (the animated one), for instance, and the exceptionally boring Extract. Yet, it’s funny that two of the primary cast members* of Extract are supporting actors in the film I saw, and enjoyed immensely, today.
I started my 2010 movie year right, with a big screen viewing of Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga. I expect a lot out of director Jason Reitman, seeing as his other two films (Juno and Thank You For Smoking) are in my top twenty favorites from the last 5 years. Mister Reitman delivers here, with a quiet, subtle and engaging little movie. Clooney is, as always, charming, disarming and deft at understated comedy. I was not familiar with Farmiga previous to this film, but her gorgeous eyes and confident sensuality make perfect chemistry with Clooney.
I think the biggest takeaway here is Kendrick, a young actress largely known for a supporting role in the Twilight films. Though diminutive and severely attired, her upstart businesswoman brims over with a mix of perceptive intelligence and naïve personal inexperience. She is Clooney’s real foil, a challenging opposite who is, in many ways, as empty of true personal fulfillment as the isolated traveler.
Kendrick’s portrayal, a poised go-getter on the verge of achievement destabilized by deeper experience, presents that perfect audience challenge – the person you’d likely despise in real life made appealing, developed into someone you want to root for. Prim and stoic or shaken with an embarrassing, hysterical fit, Kendrick glues her scenes together with impressive gravity. She’ll be one to watch**, certainly.
Shot largely in St. Louis, there were a few times where I lost the moment because I recognized locales. In particular, the hotel for the Wisconsin wedding is the Cheshire Lodge, a quaint and cozy little inn I’ve done web promotions for and stopped in for a few drinks. It was cool, though, to hear our Lambert airfield get some loving respect in Clooney’s dialogue.
Up in the Air is likely going to join my list of favorite films – at every point I was enjoying myself, completely taken in by the direction, the cinematography, acting and soundtrack. It fits well on my keeper shelf beside Lost in Translation (which I think of as my favorite film, along with the combined might of the Lord of the Rings trilogy).
* Jason Bateman and J.K. Simmons, both stars of the lamentable Extract, pull smaller – but stronger – roles in Up in the Air. Simmons in particular provides for an emotional scene. I love this guy, seriously. I wish he were my neighbor so we could sit on a back porch somewhere, drink beer and talk amiably about nothing in particular.
** You can follow Anna on Twitter (though she hasn’t posted in awhile) as @AnnaKendrick47. As if she needed to be more endearing, this is her self-description: “Pale, awkward and very very small. Form an orderly queue, gents.”
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