Up In The Air

I finally caught Up In The Air on my Dulles-to-Dallas flight on the way to Anchorage, and while it's not a bad little film, it seems to me like the buzz around it during Oscar season must mostly have been because it gave some attention to the emotional impact of the economic downturn. George Clooney is quite good, though he doesn't have to show much range. Ditto with Vera Farmiga. Anna Kendrick is good, though here character spends so much time in the realm of deep annoyingness that it was difficult to connect with her, even while I thought the performance was generally strong. I appreciated the variety of an unhappy ending. The light blues of the palette are a good, consistent aesthetic, if not a daring or transporting one. But I don't think the movie is nearly as good, or as interesting, for example, as Michael Clayton, another Sad Clooney movie, where the writing is transcendent, and not in a "the economy sucks and you're evil!" kind of way, but in a way that touches the true strangeness of life. I feel like I ought to have more to say about the movie, but that's the nature of solid but unremarkable movies. It was here, and now it's gone. Much like Ryan Bingham.