Up in the Air- had to comment just saw it

who all has seen up in the air? I know it was based on a novel by Walter Kirn (and from the amazon.com description & summary the film departed from the book a bit)

I was lmao, really brilliant film and what struck me is how it "mirrors" what most PERCEIVE about George Clooney and how he is PERCEIVED to live his life (i cap'd perceive because really all we know about his private life is what gossips and newspapers/mags speculate about eh?)

and...to me anyway George almost seemed to be having fun with it, almost was a send up of himself as he is written about in the press.

showed QUITE a sense of humor. I loved the movie, definitely will watch it again.

i could be way off base on my perceptions so I posted this thread to see what anyone else thought?

Iamnoone, you pretty much nailed it. Even the press he did do for it, that was the major comment that it mirrored his real life. I remember one interview he said that some thought he didn't even need to act it, as he lived it every day!! He said "I just don't see it, don't know what you're talking about". hahahahaha
I did actually love it!

wow really? I missed the press junkets & interviews for this, it does sound like its right and he was having a ball playing with people's minds in this role and having fun! I will have to find some of the interview for that thanks melbert!

Yep. It's that conversation he has (in MIami?) with the young girl (forgotten the character's name) where they talk about marriage and relationships. I think he's killing himself laughing at his lines because they're so George Clooney.

no
absolutely not

A video of Up in the Air premier in 2009. I love when he mentions he's with his mother and "some random woman".

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Read the book, and yes, they did digress a bit from it. The book made Ryan Bingham a more flawed character than George's portrayal, and therefore made the movie more palatable. Don't want to give away ending, would be a spoiler for anyone who wanted to read it.

That's one of the bad things about reading the book first and then seeing the movie. I've done that and had too many expections of the movie.

I didn't read the book first. I read it to compare the different versions.
Did the same w/TA. Read A Very Private Gentlemen after seeing TA and also have a very different ending. Have already read TD. Can't wait to see how it's handled. From Trailers, it seems to be pretty on course.

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Up In The Air: The Anti-Mid Life Crisis

A darker twist on the notion of mid-life crisis
Published on January 6, 2010 by Jeremy Clyman in Reel Therapy

Can you live without others and be mentally healthy? This is a core sub-textual question raised in the recently-released, Oscar-buzzing "Up in the Air," in which George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a charming, successful and interpersonally detached individual. Part of the movie is about his unique occupation, firing people from companies unwilling to do the firing themselves.

But I'm more interested in the part of the movie that explores an equally unique personal life. He lives alone - completely, utterly, and happily. He relishes a lifestyle that has him on the move and in the air more often than not, because it allows for fleeting attachments that never come close to threatening his sense of personal freedom and independence. At mid-life he is connected to few people beyond a boss he doesn't like and a mentor he doesn't want to like. "Make no mistake, your relationships are the heaviest baggage in your life," he lectures to us early on.

This is unexpected because Bingham seems like a socially successful person, which tends to mean the opposite of disconnection and aloneness.

Let me qualify this point. First of all, Bingham is played by George Clooney, so right off the bat he's likable - can't be helped. And, after a few minutes of observing just how smart, kind and generous Bingham is, it is hard to imagine not loving him. Not to mention that his social savvy allows him to, on a daily basis, deftly handle such awkward, anxiety-provoking encounters as being fired. Imagine you're being fired by a stranger, for no reason, in a time-limited, no-nonsense business meeting. Now, imagine that you are exiting this meeting feeling emotionally contained, if not inspired. This is what Bingham can do when he puts his mind to it (for the most part), and it's evidence of a strikingly high social and emotional IQ. All of this points toward Bingham seeming like the kind of gregarious charmer that Malcolm Gladwell calls a Connector. These are the Paul Revere's of the world whom possess the natural tendencies and skills to bring people together, to form trusting, fulfilling relationships, so much so that when frightening, unexpected shouts of, "The British are coming!" are heard on cold and rainy nights, immediate, inspired action is taken.

But Bingham is not Revere, because he does not want to be Revere. He wants to be left alone to enjoy a life of frequent flyer miles, state-of-the-art travel wear and one-night stands.

Something is off here. We are social creatures with instincts to travel in packs. We have drives to love others, to be a part of something larger than ourselves. This is substantiated by a large pile of research that classifies friends and family as a "social support network," an element of our psychological worlds that serves a critical, irreplaceable function in maintaining our health and happiness. Without the presence and support of this network, without the desire to create and expand this network, suffering accelerates. To be highly sociable but not seek meaningful relationships goes against so many instincts and denies so many benefits that a psychological screw must be loose.

Now, it could be that Bingham's socially adept-aloneness is simply a character inconsistency and the notion of realistic human behavior has been abandoned by the filmmakers. But, I think it goes deeper than that. He seems mentally healthy so why doesn't he seek out what the mentally healthy person would seek out? One way to think about it is that social connection can be a double-edged sword. Relationships can be burdensome and limiting. Sharing a life with another can be a struggle, as compromise can be irritating and personal success can be threatened. However, something must be happening that is blinding Bingham from the interpersonal end goal that most healthy folks intuit - the formation of flexible, balanced and adaptive relationships that enhance the meaning of life without suffocating personal goals and values. Bingham lives an all-or-nothing life of solitude and meaningless connections.

We'll come back to this in a moment because the movie does not supply an answer. However, what the movie does supply is a message that validates the importance of the "social support network" by showing the consequences of a poorly constructed one. While Bingham is artfully firing everyone in sight he meets and eventually falls head over heels for a female version of himself named Alex Goran (played by Vera Farmiga). It takes him awhile to realize this because he is probably accustomed to thinking of others as objects of momentary pleasure. But once he identifies his deep romantic feelings for Alex he harnesses that high emotional and social IQ and decides on a romantic, spontaneous appearance on her doorstep with feelings of love and thoughts of commitment. It's too late. Alex is a wife and mother and Bingham is interrupting dinner. He never realizes that the identity he worked so hard to construct was perfectly designed to make him not the boyfriend or husband to another, but the "other man." His brutal collision with rejection and loneliness may feel surprising as Alex's other life is a curveball hidden well by the script, but this outcome smacks of natural consequences.

The ending is sad. Bingham is all alone, and his attempt to change his life for the better comes too late. This is especially hard to stomach because of the inconsistency between his highly sociable character and the disconnection in his life. He is alone but should not be alone and by the time he realizes that he does not want to be alone, something that someone like him should have concluded a long time ago, it is too late. Since the movie does not attempt to reconcile the incompatible dichotomy, I will provide a few possible explanations.

The commitment-phobe explanation: This would mean that despite the many opportunities his charm creates, Bingham does not want to commit to another. This would require that at some point in Bingham's personality development one of two core beliefs solidified in his psyche: A. There is something so horribly wrong with me that I am doomed to eventual rejection. B. There is something so horribly wrong with other people that any relationship I attempt is doomed to eventual failure. This explanation is very unlikely considering that his self- and other-perceptions seem to imbue confidence, optimism and rationality. In some ways what makes him so likable is what should also make him connected to others.

The misanthrope explanation: This would mean that he genuinely dislikes people. This makes sense on the surface as it concurs with his unrivaled desire to spend as much time as possible thousands of miles above society. It also explains why he has a non-existent relationship with his family and excels at doing the Donald Trump "You're Fired" thing for a living. But, it does not jive with the type of person he seems to be. He is the kind of guy that helps a fiancée with cold feet jump back into marrying his younger sister. He is the kind of guy that writes a glowing recommendation for a disliked protegee without provocation, and he is the kind of guy that treats all people with respect and compassion. Though the movie implies the possibility of this explanation, it is unlikely.

The anti-mid-life crises explanation: Most mid-life crises occur when a life of stability and routine is re-evaluated, but for Bingham what is reevaluated upon hitting the mid-life developmental phase is his commitment to bachelorhood. This is the most likely explanation I can imagine. His slow evolution from a man-a-part to a man in love with Alex is preceded by the following events: His lifestyle of non-stop travel is threatened by industry-wide changes that would render him grounded in one location; his temporary teammate, the up-and-coming Natalie, challenges his lifestyle and makes him feel old; his female neighbor ends their casual relationship when she finds a husband. These significant triggers may have enhanced his sense of loneliness and lowered his psychological defenses enough to compel him to critically examine his way of doing business and his long-term goals.

Please write in with other alternative explanations that bridge his social abilities with his construction of a distinctly anti-social world.

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Up in the Air: Shall We Dance?

Can one escape from all relationships?
Published on June 12, 2010 by Thomas Scheff, Ph.D. in Let's Connect

The film Up in the Air (2009) is a must-see. George Clooney plays the protagonist, Ryan Bingham, whose job is fire people, a job terminator. His job requires that he be in flight virtually all the time. He discovers toward the end of the film that what had been one of his key life purposes, shedding relationships, might be a huge mistake.

Perhaps shedding or keeping relationships is also problematic for most people in modern societies: the degree of balance between self and other(s). There doesn't seem to be an easy solution. Even today there are still those who serve others to the point of neglecting self. For example, in the traditional marriage, the wife was supposed to be loyal to husband and family to the point that she gave up vital parts of her self, such as her anger and even her intelligence. The sacrifice of self still occurs today, but the size of this group is probably decreasing. Ryan Bingham represents what may be a substantial majority, those whose first priority is self.

The film, supposedly based on a novel (Kirn 2001), actually creates its own plot and personality for the protagonist. The film particularly scaled down his repulsiveness. Kirn's Ryan was completely self-absorbed, to the point of being oblivious to others. At his worse in the film, Ryan is never oblivious, but he puts self before others, ignoring and avoiding attachments. At the end, he comes to question this equation and begins to change his individualistic attitude and behavior.

Ryan in the film is not a freak like the protagonist in the novel. He can be seen as more of an Everyman (and increasingly, Everywoman, as more women become oriented toward careers). Most of us have been trained that advancement of self should be our foremost goal, even if it means forsaking places and persons. Ryan also seems to be not only alienated from others, but also from self. Perhaps its because of his loathsome profession as terminator: intruding into peoples' lives only long enough to fire them. His casual affairs and meaningless goal of amassing air miles could serve as distractions from the painfulness of his job, shielding him from feeling the shame and guilt that comes from hurting others.

The film can be interpreted as a comment on what sociologists call mass alienation: a society made up of individuals alienated from others and from self. Especially in organizations and in cities, many of us bounce off each other like billiard balls. Since modern societies promote individualism, we have learned to ignore relationships and relationship problems; they are more or less invisible. Yet it seems to me that mass alienation is the ultimate cause of most of the crucial problems that our civilization faces. I salute the filmmakers for trying to call this gigantic issue to our attention.

References

Kirn, Walter. 2001. Up in the Air. New York: Doubleday.

Reitman, Jason, (Director), and Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Scriptwriters) 2009. "Up in the Air."

chills
about this overlapping
@ perception of his life
and this film issue

but
who really knows his life?

yep

maybe neither him

si my precious heart !

I have to go to work again

a dopo !!!!!!!!!! <3

me too!

bye Vi bye all!

I don't know if anyone has seen the UITA trailers a few years ago. If not, here are some clips, you may have to click on arrivals, boarding, video and trailers:

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All the bed scenes are yummy, but the second scene where Alex leaves him in the room after the boat trip is just soooooooooo (swoon), I couldn't leave such a hot hunk in bed like that nooooooo! Never in a month of Sundays!!!!! I'd pay George toooo!!!!!

fluffy wrote:All the bed scenes are yummy, but the second scene where Alex leaves him in the room after the boat trip is just soooooooooo (swoon), I couldn't leave such a hot hunk in bed like that nooooooo! Never in a month of Sundays!!!!! I'd pay George toooo!!!!!

Yep, loved that scene where Ryan (George) wakes up before Alex has to take off for her flight to Cincinnati (you didn't take George with you, I could have met them both at the CVG airport, LOL!!). Man, yessssss, he WAS SO hunky in that scene.

thanks for the vid!