Up in the Air (Spoiler Thread)

I love this movie so much I need to have a spoiler thread.

I totally didn’t see the thing with Alex coming until Ryan took off for Chicago. Right off the bat, you get a sick feeling when it’s a neighborhood of brownstones. But man, talk about devastating.

Anna Kendrick is my new crush. She caught my eye in Rocket Science, but god only knows how much I hated that movie. I loved her in this, plus it seemed she was hawk-like in appearance, which only made her fit in more.

I was totally afraid that the movie would go off track once Danny McBride showed up (in person), but he played it wonderfully low-key. Also, Zach G. and J.K. Simmons always rock.

My roommate actually got to see this a month ago in San Francisco. There was a screening with Jason Reitman in attendance and he did a Q&A. A lot of those people who were laid off in the film were real people who were laid off.

I saw this coming 20 miles away, and I’m not usually a guy who calls it in movies. I thought this part of the movie was predictable, but necessary.

Great movie overall, though. Even though most of the beats were about what you expect (although the downer ending I wasn’t sure about, and really respected), the dialog is great and the acting is great and the direction was great. It’s weird, because the characters are very stereotypical things that I’ve seen a zillion times before, and large swaths of the plot are things I’ve seen before, but somehow the movie transcends all that and manages to be excellent.

Who didn’t hate Rocket Science?

I have to think you would be in the minority, I felt shortly into the film that the Alex-Ryan relationship would be the obvious conclusion. I have to say I didn’t see it until he was at her door.

Anyways, one of the things I really liked about the film was Reitman’s use of methodical direction as a metaphor for Ryan’s work.

Also, has anyone read the book? I’m curious how it compares, because going by the Wikipedia description the film seems to quite a departure.

I caught this yesterday and absolutely loved it. One of the best films I’ve seen all year, maybe all decade. I loved that they didn’t go all stereotypical ending. I found the whole “epiphany in the middle of his big moment” scene a little clichéd, but at least he didn’t give some moving, impassioned speech telling everyone how wrong his backpack philosophy was. That would’ve been way too much.

I found it sad that things turned out for him the way that they did, but it’s a much more realistic, honest resolution. And the seeds of human connection have already been planted in him, so you can see him not being as island-y in the future.

I had a hunch that something was gonna be wrong, but it was a passing thing that I didn’t pay any mind to.

Anyways, one of the things I really liked about the film was Reitman’s use of methodical direction as a metaphor for Ryan’s work.

Fun trivia bit: Except for the obviously-acted characters, Reitman apparently filled the roles of the fired schlubs with actual people who’d been recently laid off. He put out an ad pretending to be putting out a documentary and had them role-play their actual firings. So awesome.

I saw this again and there are very subtle hints that Alex is hiding something, but because there’s so much terrific chemistry between them you either gloss over it or you miss it entirely.

Vera Farmiga is fabulous, and she’s a perfect foil for Clooney. I was also glad they didn’t do the obvious Hollywood thing and have the older leading man with the much younger woman. (In fact, they mock it with the “He’s Old!” bit.) But it could be said that Fermiga is the best leading lady that Clooney’s ever had; better than J-Lo in Out of Sight.

Yeah, I sort of mentioned that.

She was brilliant and so perfectly casual-cool in how she played off him. She pretty much hit it on the head when she said she’s him with a vagina.

I was also glad they didn’t do the obvious Hollywood thing and have the older leading man with the much younger woman.

I think it would’ve killed the movie if they’d gone that route. Though I’m assuming (not having read the book) that Alex is meant to be an older character.

Funnily enough, Vera is only about 36 or so. Hardly old by any stretch.

Yeah, I sort of mentioned that.

Oh. Heh. So you did. I completely missed that when I read the OP.

Also, the more I think about it, the more annoyed I am at Natalie for her little outburst. She was the one who drilled it into Ryan’s head that Alex might want more than a casual ships-in-the-night arrangement. She set him on the path to heartbreak. If not for her, he’d have stayed where he was and been happier for it.

bitch

Bump for the wide release.

Loved the flick. The whole thing was pretty depressing, yet I liked it anyway. I could’ve used more Galifianakis, Simmons, and Bateman.

I don’t see there having been any hints that Alex was married. Explain, please.

The HUGE MISTAKE they made in the flick was showing Clooney putting his shoes in one of the security checkpoint bins. I’ve been to multiple airports that post signs explicitly saying not to do that. Makes sense, too, cuz that would make the bins dirty and such.

What? They make you take off your belt, your jacket, your shoes and your laptop, and demand that they all go into seperate bins. If you’re lucky you can toss your jacket on top of your laptop.

Really though, Ryan should have leveraged the “I’m just like you, except I have a vagina” line in his favor. “I’m just like you, but I have a vagina. And kids. And a husband.”

Yes, you have to take them off, but I’ve been to multiple airports that say not to put your shoes in the bin. Shoes can just go directly onto the treads.

I had access to the limited release, but I’ve only just now been to see it.

I loved it, but I admit I went in expecting something sort of like The Terminal… And I guess it really isn’t that far off: They continually bump into each other in the airport; he slowly falls for the girl; she’s secretly still cheating; and the ending is sad, betrayed & alone despite the accomplished life goal. Admittedly The Terminal was slightly more upbeat than this.

I must also admit that from the point roughly 2 minutes before they took the picture at the Luxor Pyramid, I thought Ryan’s next primary plot point would be to give up his collection of 10,000,000 miles, instead using them to follow Alex around the country on her flights. Because I thought that was coming, I completely missed that Alex was married until I saw the house. Now that I think of it, I should have known as soon as she told Natalie what she was looking for in a man; it wasn’t at all like Ryan.

Worse still, after Ryan was betrayed by Alex, the film betrayed its former philosophy of lifestyle with the sappy ‘people are more important’ schtick. More seriously, I did think that final bit would have been too sentimental but for Clooney’s delivery of the last lines. I quite liked it as an ending after hearing that.

EDIT: You’re right, betrayal is too strong a word in the second case. I was still thinking more about The Terminal (in which case it is appropriate) & overlaying my thoughts about that film onto Up in the Air.

Betrayal is far too strong a word. He was just operating on an incomplete set of assumptions.

I didn’t find it clichéd, mostly because it wasn’t an epiphany so much as him simply realizing that he no longer believed the stuff that he was saying. Sort of an anti-epiphany.

Great movie, and I loved pretty much everyone in it.

Saw it this evening. I can certainly see it gathering several award nominations.

Harsh, harsh movie, though. Of course I’ve been laid off recently, so maybe I’m biased, but it was just brutal watching some of it. Especially where the two “adults” are consoling the young girl after her boyfriend texts her with his blowoff.

As for the climactic moment: they really tease you with the “hollywood ending” idea, before yanking the rug. I thought that was nicely done.

I have to admit, while I liked this film overall, I’m not getting the total love. I can see it getting tons of nominations, probably even some wins. But I felt like this movie took really interesting characters and situations and ran them through the hollywood paint by numbers most of the time. In the end, that left me fairly disappointed because it felt like wasted potential.

Thought I definitely agree that vera farminga may be the best actress to ever hold her own with clooney. I wish there was a way to see how she would have done julia roberts part in the oceans movies.

I don’t know… again, I liked it but think it’s more a good movie in a weak year than an actually great flick.

Also really didn’t like how they stuck in the actual fired people at the end to punch me in the face with the point of the story after the story had already started punching me in the face with said point.

Who did Jason Bateman play? I totally missed him. Was he the pilot with a ton of makeup and a weird voice?

And Cut Chemist was in the movie too? Don’t remember any DJ either.

I’ve always put my shoes in the bin.

Jason bateman played clooney’s boss back in omaha. Sam elliot played the pilot that clooney meets.

I know; I’ve only seen the signs saying not to in the past year.

With a glorious, glorious fake mustache. At least, I hope that was fake.

I’ve put my shoes in the bin within the last year. I’ll grant you that it may be the policy at some airports, but it’s not a valid criticism of the movie unless you specifically know it wasn’t allowed at the airport Clooney was at during the time period of the movie.

I was specifically looking for him and I missed that. How is that possible?