Up in the Air Blu-ray Review

Based on the novel by Walter Kirn, Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air centers around Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a corporate downsizing expert living -and loving- a solitary life out of a suitcase. Bingham is so successful at keeping his life in control that on the side, he goes on the lecture circuit to instruct others on how to do the same with their own lives. Ryan excels at his line of work, as well as keeping the world around him at an emotional distance.

But thanks to two women, Ryan’s life is about to experience some serious turbulence. Alex (Vera Farmiga), a female version of Ryan, threatens to bring some long-absent emotional connection into his life. Natalie (Anna Kendrick) is a new employee at the company Ryan works at. She is of the mind that corporate downsizing can be done just as effectively and efficiently via teleconferencing as it can in person, a notion that threatens Ryan’s personal goal of obtaining ten million frequent-flyer miles.

Up In the Air is a terrific comedy/drama, one reminiscent of the works of Billy Wilder, Cameron Crowe, James L. Brooks and Alexander Payne. You may not necessarily like or sympathize with Ryan, Alex or Natalie. But thanks to the winning performances by Clooney, Farmiga and Kendrick, you do empathize with these flawed but fascinating characters. And while there are plenty of laughs to be had throughout, there are some fine moments of drama that help pack quite an emotional punch, the latter fueled by the story’s timely setting and the effective use of non-actors sharing their own employment experiences.

There are times where the movie could have easily veered into a schmaltzy, manipulative romantic comedy replete with a forced, moral-heavy message. Fortunately, Reitman prevents that from happening. His screenplay adaptation, co-written by Sheldon Turner, is full of snappy dialogue and a welcome degree of honesty, which helps greatly in avoiding the usual Hollywood clichés. Reitman’s confident directing lets the film’s events unfold and develop at their own pace while giving the cast plenty of breathing room to bring their characters to life. The young filmmaker certainly impressed with his first two films, Thank You For Smoking and Juno. But with Up in the Air, he takes a major leap forward, cementing his standing as one of the more promising talents working in American cinema today.

High-Def Presentation

Arriving on Blu-ray a scant three months after its theatrical debut, Up in the Air looks and sounds just fine. The 1080p/AVC encoded picture is solid, free of any sort of edge enhancement or DNR. Colors, skin tones and black levels are strong, and picture detail is excellent. The 5.1 DTS HD-Master Audio track is mostly a front-speaker affair, one that effectively handles center-channel dialogue and left and right fronts for the music and sound effects. Aside from the music, which has a nice bit of heft to it, bass isn’t used all that much. Neither are the rear surround channels. I saw the film twice in digital projection last fall. Despite the state-of-the-art technology used to project the movie, I have to say that Paramount’s Blu-ray is actually a more pleasing viewing experience.

Beyond the Feature

While the feature presentation is impressive, the supplemental section is where the disc stumbles a bit. Whether it was due to the short window between cinemas and home video or whether it was decided early on that a $25 million adult comedy/drama simply didn’t warrant a exhaustive bonus material section, Up in the Air offers very little in regards to extras; a few which are good, while others are not so much.

First up is an informative feature-length audio commentary by Jason Reitman, Director of Photography Eric Steelberg and First Assistant Director Jason Blumenfeld. Recorded last December, the commentary track tackles the usual assortment of production stories ranging from changes in Kirn’s original novel, the film’s soundtrack and the use of non-actors who had been recently laid-off from their jobs.

Next up are a selection of deleted scenes (23:16), which can be played with or without audio commentary by Reitman (there is also a “Play All” function included). Thirteen scenes are presented here, mostly scene extensions that were wisely cut for pacing reasons. Of all the sequences, two stand out for different reasons. The first is entitled “Omaha Montage” which fleshes out a important situation in the film’s third act. The sequence helped fleshed out Clooney’s character a bit more, but I could still see why it was deleted from the final cut. The second sequence is a truly odd one, which involves a dream sequence where Ryan is floating around in a spacesuit with Ricky Nelson’s “Lonesome Town” playing in the background. Really odd.

The remainder of the bonus material runs a combined ten minutes. Shadowplay Before the Story (2:27) is a very brief look at the studio responsible for the film’s opening credit design. Storyboards (1:27) show how Reitman maps out a scene, not by traditional storyboarding sketching but by filming stand-ins acting out said scene. A music video from Sad Brad Smith for his song “Help Yourself” is next and runs 67 seconds. Since this is more of a commercial for the film than it is a genuine music video, I think Paramount could have renamed this. American Airlines Prank is a 37-second outtake good for a one-time chuckle, while the film’s teaser (2:00) and theatrical trailers (2:32) close out the bonus material.

Don’t let the recent shutout at the Academy Awards sway you from Up in the Air. Timely, funny, entertaining and occasionally heartbreaking, this is easily one of the best American films of 2009 and Jason Reitman’s most impressive work to date. Paramount’s Blu-ray offers up a solid transfer and a small, mixed bag of supplements (don’t hold your breath for a double-dip, folks) and comes highly recommended.

– Shawn Fitzgerald

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