movies: up in the air

I think that the easiest way to classify Up in the Air is to say that it's equally what you'd expect and also not what you'd expect...

And, as I commented to Ma afterwards, George Clooney joins that club of actors who are kinda always themselves in movies...which isn't to say that his performance isn't excellent, but the essential Clooneyness does shine through... maybe to the advantage of the character.

It's a great movie though... even if it does take a little while to warm up... I kinda felt that it wasn't until the scene with the trio of George, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick that I felt like it really started to ramp up.

And I can see why there's a lot of buzz around Vera and Anna for the Oscars... they're both excellent... very different and fairly low-key overall, but still excellent.

Actually, that's a good description for the movie... low-key... it's not big or flashy or overblown, I mean even the movie poster doesn't trade on George's face (and is actually taken from a scene in the movie... well, two thirds of it anyway). But there's some excellent writing there from (writer/director) Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, some genuinely funny moments and some excellent storytelling.

Because it's so low-key though, there really isn't that much to talk about... the performances are pretty excellent across the board (although even though there are a lot of people featured it feels like the cast is very small)... and it was interesting to see Jason Bateman yet again essentially playing third banana... in fact I didn't even know he was in it... a bit like Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium...

There's also a degree of predictability towards the end of the movie... or I guess it's more that there's the assumption of predictability, some of which pans out and some of which doesn't...

But it does make me want to see it again, just to revisit the end.

An excellent movie experience though... and definitely one for the DVD list...

yani's ratings: 4 loyalty cards out of 5