CARIBARENA Antigua & Barbuda

Boredom led me to watch this movie one afternoon last week. But that’s actually a good thing. I kept reading about how good Up In The Air was, but I didn’t get it.

How great can a story be when it’s just about a man who travels around firing people? Sounded like an interesting job, but so what? It didn’t even seem from the previews that the firings, or the employees’ reactions, were the issue. It just seemed to be about George Clooney discovering something about his life.

The story crept up on me. If you’re looking something that’s fast out the gate and keeps you guessing, this isn’t it. Ten minutes into viewing, I was texting a friend about how boring it was. Thirty minutes later, I was texting her again as I was getting back to this interesting movie. Just before the end, I was ignoring the blinking light on my cell phone so I could see how the movie would end.

If you appreciate good dialogue and multi-faceted character interactions, Up In The Air will satisfy. The actors are convincingly “real” people, each with their own issues and their own way of facing them, or not. It’s not the Tyler Perry brand of drama, but softer conflicts that are equally enthralling.

Some patches of knee-jerk laughter snuck up on me out of nowhere. Other times I just wondered how these strange, but likeable people would react to the newest development.

The story overall has a genuine feel to it. Most importantly, and most satisfying to me, is the realness of the ending. I suspected the outcome, and kept trying to guess how they’d fix it, but it turned out it didn’t need fixing. It was just fine.

In summary (no spoilers), George Clooney is an intense Ryan Bingham who’s enjoying his life and the perks associated with a job that keeps him, literally, up in the air. Then he meets a similarly no-strings-attached Alex (Vera Farmiga) and they have so much in common, it’s scary. Along the way, and in the way, is Natalie Keener, cutely played by Anna Kendrick.

I had to go look up the last two actors, as I couldn’t remember what movies I’d seen them in before. Farmiga was the female lead in Running Scared, while Kendrick last had a role in Twilight and New Moon. After watching Up In The Air, their newest characters have been cemented in my mind.

As a devout action movie junkie, I was in no hurry to see Up In The Air, but it’s earned an A- from me for its uniqueness. I’m very glad I watched it.

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