"Up in the Air"

I don't know exactly why I have left this movie in the past so easily, but I was so taken by the initial praise that I couldn't wait to see it. And so I did.

I know that I was favorably impressed and enjoyed the performances, and was moved. I was caught up in the love story, mildly stunned by the outcome. And after mentioning it to people the next few days, saying how good it was, I moved on. I only thought of it again during Oscar time, and when an old high school friend wrote on Facebook that it had "pissed" her off, but she didn't say why. Because she's smart, I felt stupid for having liked it, assuming I had missed some major irony or point. And then the Oscars passed it by, too.

I think your treatise is right on, Shakes. But overall, it was much more conventional a movie than I was led to believe it might be. And that is, I think, in no small part to the fact that George Clooney is so very good at making the smart movie taste good as it goes down. He's our Cary Grant, isn't he? He's a populist and a good guy. But he isn't afraid to occasionally smear the need to think in our faces (Syriana, Michael Clayton, Good Night, and Good Luck, for example.)

But this wasn't one of those kinds of movies. In a way it was like a Capra movie. Lots of identification with the "little man," and entertaining and a little righteous. The state of the economy at the time it was made and released are the only reasons the movie felt a little tough. If and when the economy improves, will future viewers see it the same way?

I had a different interpretation of the end. I got the sense that the Clooney character had changed more than you and others may have. He does narrate clearly that the shoes he's wearing onboard that plane at the end are wingtips, and those require shoelaces, an indicator that he has dumped the slip-ons for shoes that take time going through security checkpoints. I assumed he was traveling for pleasure.

Maybe I'm a little deaf and dummy. I thought it was a happy ending.