No one’s really heard too much about Jason Reitman’s corporate downsizing dramedy, “Up In The Air,” other than the fairly informative Twitter posts that Reitman produces a few times a week.
Sure, we did an in-depth script review that gave you the details — yes, it’s good, well-written, has heart, soul and laughs, it’s a strong serio-com — but no one’s really seen it until now. A tipster who saw a rough cut in Toronto emailed Jeff Wells with his thoughts and the comments are incredibly enthusiastic. Does he peg the film as a sure-fire Oscar contender? Not exactly, but the way he’s waxing effusively, it sounds like it could have a shot at the recently expanded Oscar 10. We must admit we’re intrigued and it sounds like the solid script really took off.
Apparently, this viewer thinks a Best Actor nomination is in sight for lead actor George Clooney and his thoughts are on-point. Having read the script, it almost felt tailored to the actor. You really could see him taking to the role with wings.
“This is the Clooney who dashes around Italy on a motorbike with an Italian lap-dancer strapped to his back. This is a character Clooney was born to play, always impeccably dressed, meticulous in his words, basically a throwback to the great stars of yesteryear. In the film he plays a professional whacker…yup, the big companies fly Clooney around when they don’t have the balls to fire a long time employee and he’s good at it. He’s got it down to a science. Clooney is masterful.. Cary Grant crossed with Warren Beatty. He’s amazing to watch. At the heart of the film is the notion of what drives us in life and what’s most important to us as human beings. Clooney is a superficial jerk who meets a superficial lady (Vera Farmiga), and they strike up a very modern relationship. They have palpable chemistry in the film. They meet all over America in swanky hotel rooms with no strings attached. I don’t want to spoil the film but by the end Clooney’s character wants more from life and from the girl. Although he may be too late in making these needs known.”
A near-perfect film?
“I saw the film two weeks ago, and I still haven’t been able to shake it. It was a test screening but it was a near perfect film, except for one minor dream sequence which was a little on the nose. In the film, Clooney says he’s crisscrossed the world so many times that he could’ve gone to the moon. Well, you can guess what the dream sequence is: Clooney dressed like an old-timey astronaut floating up through buildings in downtown Omaha. It’s trippy but felt out of character for the film.”
Evidently director Jason Reitman continues to hone his craft. This is only Reitman’s third film and he’s showing such a level of confidence that it’s almost scary. Where does he go from here? “Up In The Air” is going to be on everyone’s Ten-Best list, and Clooney will be nominated for Best Actor. Clooney has never been so good. Wells says this guy is a trusted source, a screenwriter and not just some joe off the street who emailed AICN a review which they ran. We can believe it only because the review is well-written and certainly reads true to everything we already read in the excellent script, but we’ll admit it annoyed us at first. We wrote:
Reitman heads back into corporate America territory again (obviously), and the opening employs an animated credits sequence (hello, “Juno”) and that smarmy and affected voice-over tone, this time fetishizing frequent-flyer culture via “Fight Club”s “single-serving friend” dialogue only more contrived. Still, the sharply-written script has undeniable humor. It’s too pleased-with-itself cleverness threatens to annoy initially, but much like “Juno,” once the world is established and the story finds its rhythm, it eases into a soulful and very human place.
“Up In The Air,” does not have a firm release date but is said to come out around Christmas time and if the “Juno” release is any indication it’ll be out around the week before the holidays. Let’s hope they kept that Young MC cameo.”Up In The Air,” will make its world premiere at TIFF ’09 and also stars Jason Batemen and Anna Kendricks.