High Praise for Up in the Air Puts it in the Frontrunner’s Spot

With yet more near-unanimous praise for Up in the Air, perhaps it’s time to call it.¬† Roger Ebert is the latest to fall head-over-heels for Jason Reitman’s third pic:

It stars George Clooney in one of his best performances, as a frequent flyer. During the course of the movie he passes the 10 million-mile mark in the American Airlines Aadvantage Program, becoming the seventh such person in history. Asked on an airplane where he lives, he replies, “Here.” He’s a Termination Facilitator. He fires people for a living. When corporations need to downsize quickly, he flies in and breaks the news to the new former employees. In a lousy economy, his business is great.

The film has a lot to say about unemployment, but it isn’t about the economy or living on the road. It’s about loneliness, a feeling the Clooney character thought he would never experience. To fellow road warrior (Vera Farmiga), he insists he never wants to get married, never wants to have children, and doesn’t own a home. He gives inspirational talks on how to empty the backpack of your life of all those people and possession you’ve been lugging around.

And of Reitman:

You can be 32 and already have three good films under your belt. Look at Spielberg. You need to find the financing, of course, but that’s not the hard part. The hard part, as wise men have said for generations, is story, story, story. Reitman’s films are not in the business of following formulas. All three have pointedly ended in ways we probably didn’t expect. All three have insights deserving consideration. All three require actors who can deliver complex and fascinating dialogue. All three make us care. That with Reitman we also usually laugh a good deal is so much the better.

I don’t know about you but I’m getting that funny feeling about Up in the Air. Is this our Best Picture winner? Many more movies yet to come: Nine, Invictus, Avatar – still, it’s looking more than likely. The movie will make a lot of money, it already “has” the internet. And Ebert. Does anyone not like it?