By Eddy

The most appropriate term is "Road Warrior".  That is the breed of Men/Women who spend huge amounts of time of their lives on the road.  In a small way I consider myself a part of this group.  Not a hardcore member (though Divina would enthusiastically disagree with that assessment) as was George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air , but definitely a card carrying member.  Thus I believe this status affords me a bit of an insider view of what the life of such a road warrior life consists of and how it could really de-evolve and derail your relationships with your fellow man. The life of airport lounges, free drinks, eating out, sitting in your hotel room and work isn’t all that it is cracked up to be.  Notice that much of it can be to be done by alone other than work.  That’s a lot of time to think about things…maybe too much time.

Let’s dive in to the movie now.

George stars as Ryan Bingham, who travels all around the US as a restructuring consultant. Basically he is paid to go to your company and layoff thousands of people.  For this job he travels over 300 days of the year.  Obviously, business has been very good due to the current recession.  Ryan’s job keeps him so separated from life, that he has been consumed with the fact that cutting ties with relationships and possessions is the best way to live.  He believes it to the point that he even participates in a circuit of motivational speaking extolling his philosophy.

In the end he has no attachment to anything: his family (estranged), his friends (he has none), his home (when we see the apartment it was so sterile and unused that I thought it was a hotel room at first).  Now also consider that his job is to fire people his emotional disconnection with everything appears to be complete.  The only real passion that he covets is the accumulation of Airline miles.  He never uses them but wants to achieve a total that only a handful of people have flown.

Things begin to change with a chance meeting (and subsequent start of a sexual relationship) with a fellow Road Warrior, Alex (Vera Farmiga), who is basically the female equivalent of Ryan.  Add up on top of this the threatening of his "on the road all the time" due to technology and his estranged sister’s wedding and you have all the ingredients of a self realizing epiphany.  Now I won’t get too deep in the rest of the story, but its is obviously that Ryan begins to learn a bit more of himself and whether his philosophy has any validity at all.

I found the movie to really be well made and while it was more of a Melancholy drama than I expected from Jason Rietman (Director of Thank You For Smoking ).  I was able to pull from it more of an appreciation of my own life and situation.  While Ryan never had anywhere to come home to, I at least have Divina and my son to welcome me home after a long trip.  It is those thoughts of returning to something that make all the sadness of leaving more bearable.  To me it is hard to imagine living the sort of lifestyle that Ryan Bingham lives without anything else to hold on to, I would never last. Also, his obsession with airline miles even furthers his separation with others around him, his need to accumulate miles has him constantly moving and climbing his total to some obscene amount that has no real value outside the tiny circle that covets such things.  I personally haven’t asked anyone what there miles total was (in the movie it seems the equivalent to asking how well endowed you were or what your social security number is).

Yet those thoughts aside, I though the presentation of the film was very well done and certainly deserving of the Oscar nominations that it received (best picture, lead actor, supporting actress and best director).  The performances were top rate; I could even see Clooney earning his first best Oscar for this performance; though it will apparently be a close contested competition with Jeff Bridges.  Vera Farmiga does a wonderful job in her role, I found her charming with enough of a masculine undertone to her performance that she was able to give that "one of the guys" attitude needed for the role without losing any of her sex appeal.  She certainly struck a great balance.

All in all, I thought this was a very good movie.  Don’t come in expecting a wonderfully uplifting story, if you want that go watch The Princess and The Frog .  But if you want to see some very good performances and a story and characters that may make you think about yourself and the life you live, then give it a try.

By Eddy

Going into a George Clooney film is a bit of a gamble.  You really don’t know what you are going to get. 

Am I going to have some smarmy Ocean’s rip-off or big  budget block buster, am I going to have some kind of propaganda filled anti war film-(Syriana, Michael Clayton, Good Night, Good Luck) or a quirky weird performance (O’Brother Where Art Thou, Intolerable Cruelty).  Taking a look at his resume so far, I doubt anyone could have figured it out.  Unfortunately, the same could be said for his prospects of box office success. 

Watching the previews of the film on TV, I had a distinct feeling that this was going to quirky weird Clooney.  Of course, the title of the movie might have had a bit of an influence as well.  The movie is based on a book of the same name by Jon Ronson.  We learn first hand about the development of the so called "Jedi" warriors by the U.S. Army.  These "Jedi" use their training in various new age techniques to fight wars in a new way. 

 Clooney stars as Lyn Cassady on of these trained fighters and the most gifted to come out of the program.  Ewan McGregor is a down in the dumps small town reporter that happens across Clooney and is brought in the secret world of Psy-Ops.  Through flashbacks the audience is taken through the history of the New Earth Army created by Bill Django (Jeff Bridges). Whose revelation during the Vietnam War inspired him to find alternative ways to defeat the enemies resulting in the New Earth Army.  Concurrently we find McGregor and Clooney undertaking Clooney’s final mission for the now defunct group.

I found the movie to be kind of interesting.  It definitely is not for those who are into broad comedies, but rather fit in with more of the dark ironic comic styling of the Cohen brothers (of whom Clooney is certainly familiar with).  The most hilarious aspect of the movie is that it is basically a true story; the army really did most of this crap.  Of course, I am sure the movie had to crank up the volume regarding many of the characters and the hi-jinks that were actually perpetrated but most of it looked like it could have really happened.  The parts where when these groups were taking LSD and other mind altering drugs to reach higher levels of consciousness seemed pretty plausible considering that most of this research happened during the sixties and seventies. 

The performances by both Clooney and McGregor were pretty standard.  The only standout was Jeff Bridges who as Bill Django is the catalyst for all the wackiness that went on.  Playing a supporting roll is Kevin Spacey who provides a reliable but unremarkable performance as the Darth Vader of the movie.

On a more personal note, I found out that a good portion of the movie was filmed in Bayamon, Puerto Rico where my father grew up and where my grandmother and great grandmother still live.  I am hopeful that the filming provided the area’s residents with some jobs and security during these crazy economic times.

Like I said before, this isn’t a comedy for everyone.  While I found it funny I wasn’t tearing up with laughter.  But if you are fan of Clooney or McGregor you won’t be disappointed.  For you ladies out there, there is a butt shot in the movie of both Clooney or McGregor.  My mind blanked out when it happened so I am not sure if they were body doubles or not but for some of you out there that might be a reason to go see the film.  With that I am out. 

Till next time.