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Up in the Air
Director: Jason Reitman
Release Date: December 23, 2009
Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Amy Morton, Melanie Lynskey
Language: English
Country: United States
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Up in the Air is a 2009 American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and co-written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner. It is a film adaptation of the 2001 novel Up in the Air, written by Walter Kirn. The story is about a corporate downsizer and his travels. It follows his isolated life and philosophies along with the people that he meets along the way.
Kirn wrote the book after meeting another passenger in a first class cabin who enjoyed being on the road more than 300 days a year. Reitman started adapting the book in 2002, but did not complete the screenplay until 2008 due to directing Thank You for Smoking and Juno. Reitman wrote the parts specifically for George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Danny McBride, Melanie Lynskey, Amy Morton, Sam Elliott and Zach Galifianakis. Reitman included twenty-two recently laid off workers who played themselves being fired. Filming was primarily in St. Louis, Missouri which substituted for a number of other cities shown in the film. Several scenes were also filmed in Detroit, Michigan, Omaha, Nebraska, Las Vegas, Nevada and Miami, Florida.
Reitman has heavily promoted Up in the Air with personal appearances during film festivals and other showings, starting with the Telluride Film Festival on September 5, 2009. The North American premiere was at the Mann’s Village Theater, Los Angeles, California on Monday, November 30, 2009. Paramount scheduled a limited North American release on December 4, 2009, broadening the release on December 11, 2009 with wide release set for the Wednesday before Christmas, December 23, 2009.
Reviews have been generally positive. The National Board of Review and the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association have named it the best picture of 2009. It has received eight Broadcast Film Critics Association nominations, six Golden Globe nominations and three Screen Actors Guild nominations. Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick and Dana E. Glauberman have also received multiple awards and nominations for the film.
George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who travels around the country to various workplaces and using the principles of cost leadership, conducts employee layoffs on behalf of bosses too cowardly to do it themselves. Walter Kirn stated in the film’s press notes: “Ryan is like a masseur who comes in and sort of rubs your shoulders while rolling your desk chair into the elevator.” On occasion he delivers motivational speeches about the virtue of a relationship-free life. He relishes the comfort of being anonymous during his perpetual travels. He does not have a personal life. His company chooses to ground him and keep him at the corporate headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. According to Reitman, “The movie is about the examination of a philosophy. What if you decided to live hub to hub, with nothing, with nobody?”
Cast:
- George Clooney as Ryan Bingham, a career transition counselor
- Vera Farmiga as Alex Goran
- Anna Kendrick as Natalie Keener
- Jason Bateman as Craig Gregory, owner of Integrated Strategic Management
- Amy Morton as Kara Bingham, Ryan Bingham’s older sister
- Melanie Lynskey as Julie Bingham, Ryan Bingham’s younger sister
- J.K. Simmons as Bob, a fired employee
- Sam Elliott as Maynard Finch, Chief Pilot
- Danny McBride as Jim Miller, Julie’s husband
- Zach Galifianakis as Steve, a fired employee
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