Two movies, two mean women

Up in the Air is a movie that might become a little dated when we'll watch it in 50 years or so. But if in 50 years someone will want to see the movie that best reflects 2009's atmosphere, then this will probably be the movie he should see. It stars George Clooney in his best performance yet as Ryan Bingham. Ryan Bingham works for a company that provides a curios service: They fire people when their bosses don't have the courage to do it themselves. Bingham is one of the best in this business. The writer-director Jason Reitman wrote this script already seven years ago, but only now did he get the chance to make his movie. This wasn't that bad for him, because with the current financial crisis the movie became more relevant. This is also how he got the inspiration to cast some people in his movie that were fired in real life. They are all cast as employees who are fired by Ryan Bingham. Reitman asked this people to react in the movie to this news like they wished they reacted when they were really fired.

But its use of the financial crisis is not the only reason that this is a movie for our times, like many critics have called it. In fact the movie has many themes, and the financial crisis might be the theme the movie is the least interested in. Ryan Bingham is a man that only feels at home when he is on the road, preferably in a airplane. He doesn't much care for friendships, let alone some deeper relationships and he is not very fond of his family either. During the movie he begins to question his lifestyle and is even prepared to change it. His change of heart though is in no way provoked by the financial crisis or the possible immorality of his job.

To me, the real reason why this movie is so relevant is its brilliant use of new media and technology and how it affects us. We live in a time when media and technology are evolving faster then ever and becoming more important then ever. They make a lot of our jobs easier and cheaper to do. But should we use them anytime we can? This is a question asked by Up in the Air. Natalie Keener, a new employee of Ryan Bingham's company has developed a system by which the company can fire people with only a webcam and a computer. This is obviously cheaper and faster. An employee now doesn't need to leave his office and can fire more people in a day. But it is worth asking whether this is the right or ethical way to fire people.

Another dilemma we face by the development of new media is the following: It might be cheaper and faster for companies to use the new media, but still most of the employees working ther have grown up without them. Now it is pretty tough for them to learn how they work. Apart from that, they are often forced by these new media to change their lifestyle in pretty big ways. Ryan Bingham loves to be on the road. He is absolutely not amused when his boss happily tells him that the new system works great and that he now 'finally' can spend more time at home. Besides all this, the movie also shows how much we currently interact through social media. The characters' mobile phone is always on and is the most important mean of communication. It is how Ryan gets information about his job and Natalie is dumped by her boyfriend with a simple sms-message. And when Ryan and Alex, a woman with a similar lifestyle as Ryans, are lonely, they chat via a pda.

With all this talk about its use of media I haven't said anything much about its story and characters yet. Apart from Ryan Bingham, the most important characters are Natalie Keener and Alex. Natalie is an ambitious, but naive graduate. After introducing her new system she is forced to go with Ryan on his travels around America. This because Ryan wants to show her that firing people is not something that everyone can do, and that it is a delicate job. This turns out to be a very valuable trip for her. Natalie is played by Anna Kendrick who is the second great young actress Reitman discovers after Ellen Page in Juno. She acts brilliantly.

Alex is played by Vera Farmiga. As I already said, she turns out to be a very mean woman. That is the weakest part of the movie. When Alex and Ryan meet, they agree that their relationship will only be casual. But during the course of the movie they grow closer. Alex even accompanies Ryan to his sister's wedding, where she almost acts as part of the family. Near the end of the movie Ryan, tired of his lonely life, finds Alex' address and goes to visit her. She turns out to be married and says that Ryan is just a nice distraction from her ordinary life. This does not make much sense. We did not get a single hint in the movie that Alex did not really like Ryan. In fact, it even often seemed that she liked him more then he liked her. It just seemed that they wanted Ryan to become relly heartbroken and didn't really know how to do it. But that's not the only part of the ending that doesn't really work. Natalie quits her job, because a woman, she and Ryan fired killed herself. This is something that's been done in a lot of movies and very unoriginal. The very last shot of the movie is brilliant though. Now that Natalie doesn't work for the company anymore, Ryan gets to go up in the air again. But after all he went through in the movie he doesn''t really know whether this is the life he still wants. With a look of both relief and sadness he looks at all these departure times and then the movie ends

This is, despite the ending, still a very good movie that has clever dialogue, nice cinematography and great acting from both Kendrick and Clooney. After three movies Jason Reitman still has not made a bad one.





While Vera Farmiga turned out to be a pretty bad woman in Up in the Air, she is a very decent one compared to mrs. Beth Jarrett, played by Mary Tyler Moore in the movie Ordinary People..

Conrad Jarrett is a troubled teen, but not entirely without reason. He feels guilty for his brother's death and has the feeling that his mom doesn't really love him and has always loved his brother more. He is wrong about the first part, but he during the course of the movie he seems more and more right about the second part. Of course this all is not a reason for killing himself, which is what he tried to do some time before the movie began. Conrad's dad Calvin is a nice man, who loves Conrad and actually doesn't seem to dislike anyone. Since Calvin tried to kill himself he is recovered physically and doesn't seem to still have the urge to repeat himself. But he still isn't really recovered mentally. He is distant with his friends, who still try to support him, but grow more and more annoyed. Conrad is also back again whith his swimming team, but that doesn't really interest him anymore and he eventually quits it. His only bright spots are the psychiatrist which often really seems to help him and the choir, where he sings with a nice girl who likes his voice and maybe him too. Another girl in his life is the girl that was with him in the hospital when he killed himself, but apart from a dinner they had he hasn't seen her and she doesn' t return his phone calls. In the meanwhile he still can't connect with his mother. But at least he is not the only one that has trouble connecting with her. Calvin has more and more trouble comprehending his wife, who was probably always the same, its just that Calvin only know realizes that this might not be the woman he loves.

Ordinary People now seems to be mostly known as 'that movie that unfairly beat Raging Bull at the Oscars'. That is not fair. This is a great movie that is an interesting combination of American Beauty and Good Will Hunting. It's better than the first and worse than the latter. It's good from the beginning with the great and beautyfully shot opening sequences. For the first 5-10 minutes we see the Jarrets interacting together. It's obvious that they are concerned about their son, and it's also obvious that he isn't quite right, we just don't know why. This is a great and very interesting choice, that actually has consequences for the entire movie. Because of this these charcters seem more realistic. They obviously talk to each other and not to us. Many movies begin with dialogue which makes us understand the plot. Not here though, and that's very logical. The Jarrets don't need to say to each other why their son has troubles. They already know that.

The movie's title is Ordinary People and that is a brilliant one. Not because these are ordinary people, but because these people are desperate to be considered ordinary. They deceive both themselves and the people around them that their marriage is fine, that their son is fine, that they have overcome their other son's death and that they are are still a reasonably happy family that supports and loves each other. And it actually works. If we only saw the scenes where they are surrounded by other people, we would almost think that this is a slightly boring feel-good comedy about a suburban family and their slightly annoying son. At no point in the movie do we actually see Calvin and Beth grieve over their deceased son. When they discuss it, it almost feels like they could as well talk about the failure of their car. At the end of the movie they finally face the facts, but their problems aren't solved now. In fact, only know can they start solving them. Although both Calvin and Conrad do this, the main culprit is Beth, who even scaffolds her husband, when at a party he mension that their son is seeing a psychiatrist.We get the feeling that he does this, because she is afraid of what other people might think of her otherwise. She is also afraid that her life might change in ways she never wanted to think of. She wants everything to be organised. She wants this so badly that even at her son's funeral she became at her husband for wearing the wrong shoes.

This movie has great attention to detail, and two scenes in particular show that very well. In one scene Calvin and Beth talk about some fellow who died in front of their son. This is not a death that has affected them in any way and they make some lighthearted jokes about it. The person you should watch in this scene is Conrad though who very subtly shows he is a bit stressed by this conversation. In another scene we see Conrad trying to connect with his mother by offering her help with the table. She (kindly) says that it is not necessary, but then she gets a phone call from a friend of her. She complains to her that she is very busy and has a lot of work to do around the house. This obviously distressing to Conrad.

There is not much bad to say about this movie. At the beginning of the movie there are some weird conversations, which seem to show that not all is wel in the family, but they don't really work. Also the scenes between Conrad and his psychiatrist could have been more interesting, although they are absolutely necessary for the movie.

I don't really like Robert Redford as an actor, I find him dull. As a director though he is a lot better. Besides this movie I've seen Quiz Show and The Horse Whisperer. This one and Quiz Show are very good movies and The Horse Whisperer isn't all bad.