Up in the Air
If movies were made for adults more often, I think “Up in the Air” would be judged as merely above average. But since Hollywood caters mostly to adolescents or, at best, immature adults, you can’t fault discerning moviegoers for being seduced by a mainstream film with a glossy patina of good taste and respectability. “Up in the Air” also has timeliness on its side, a rare commodity from the slow-footed major studios. George Clooney plays the star employee of a firm that does the nasty job of firing people for companies that can’t stomach delivering the bad news in-house. Director Jason Reitman captures the anxiety we all feel at the prospect that our life’s work could be tossed aside. His best touch is to use actual laid-off workers to play most of the recipients of Clooney’s ax. Their regular-guy looks ground the movie, and the emotion in their voices comes easily as they re-enact the trauma of losing their jobs. Clooney skillfully suggests a similar undercurrent of panic as his character realizes he may have to give up his cherished frequent-flier lifestyle. Yet despite the elegant parallel between Clooney and his victims, “Up in the Air” never quite takes off. Reitman hits his story beats with an almost too surgical precision and has his actors race through artificially snappy dialogue. He’s a glib and manipulative filmmaker who manhandles the audience with clumsy third-act revelations — one of them predictable, the other so out of the blue that it’s disingenuous. As Oscar front-runners go, “Up in the Air” isn’t bad, but don’t mistake this proudly middlebrow movie for a work of art.