I recently went to the movie theater, (something that is a rare event in my life lately), and watched the movie “Up In the Air”.
I knew nothing about the film before I saw it, except for the fact that some good friends of mine were interested in seeing it, and that it starred George Clooney. These particular friends and I share similar tastes in books and movies, so I knew that if they were interested in this movie that I would like it, too. George Clooney is a fine actor, and also very attractive, which meant that if nothing else, I knew I could count on about two hours of sitting down and watching George Clooney on the big screen. Works for me.
Nathan Lott has a wonderful review of the movie “Up In the Air” on his Rental Reviews podcast. Check it out! It was done by Shawn. You can also watch the movie trailer there.
It turns out that “Up In the Air” is the quintessential movie reflecting the reality of what so many people have been experiencing in the past year or so. Which makes it kind of heartbreaking to watch, if you happen to be unemployed, like me.
There is this scene right at the beginning of the film that was extremely vivid. It’s a montage of people who are seated at a conference table, and speaking to a person who is located just off screen. One by one, each person reacts to something they have just been told, which we, the audience, did not get to hear. All of a sudden, it becomes clear that these people, all of them, are reacting to being told that “their position is no longer available”, that they have been “fired”, that they have “lost their job”.
Watching this scene made me forget to breathe for a while, which I didn’t realize until I got that slightly painful feeling in my chest one gets from holding their breathe for too long. My whole body tensed up, just like it did when I first understood that I had lost my job as a paraeducator, back in September. This was all involuntary. My first conscious thought was: “Oh, crap! I’m unemployed, and I’m watching a movie about people getting fired!”
The scene was over and done with in just a few moments. The director used that short span of time extremely well to convey the wide range of emotions people feel when they come to work one day, only to get taken by surprise when they discover that this was their very last day of employment.
Some of the newly unemployed people on the screen look shocked and stunned, as if they had just survived a car accident, and still aren’t quite sure about what, exactly, just happened to them. They haven’t caught up to the reality of the situation just yet.
Others hold back tears, or, failing that, let tears fall silently down their cheeks as they list off their spouses and children who are depending on them and the money they make at this job. It was as if they were trying to negotiate with the unseen person off screen, hoping to get their job back. It was part “Don’t fire me, my kids will suffer!” and part “If I can just make you realize how much pain you are causing me, and my family, I’m sure you will feel bad, apologize, come to your senses, and give me my job back.”
Other start sobbing, and asking “What did I do wrong?”, over and over again, wanting an answer, and a chance to correct whatever it was. They cannot believe that people can lose their jobs like this, so fast, and for no reason. It’s too horrible to accept that this is happening to them, right now, right this second.
A few people openly express their disgust. They are disgusted by both this unfamiliar person who fired them, and the boss who was too cowardly to do it himself. They are disgusted that there was absolutely no warning that they were about to be fired, and that the company they spent so many years working hard for and being loyal to has decided to drop them, as if all their efforts were meaningless, and were of no value.
The character that got me, though, was this one woman. She’s angry as hell! I cannot recall the exact words she uses, but, it is clear to everyone in the theater that her contempt for this person who fired her knows no boundaries. A laugh went through the small audience in the theater with me, which broke up the tension, and made it easier to continue watching the scene. I found myself laughing too, because this irate character was feeling exactly like I was when my job disappeared! I felt many of the other emotions expressed by characters in this film as well, but the first one, was rage.
When the montage ends, the camera pans over and reveals who the evil and vile person doing the firing is. It’s the main character, a man named Ryan, who, of course, is played by George Clooney. Everyone in the audience (and most of the characters we have “met” so far), already hate Ryan’s guts. I now associated the image of George Clooney as Ryan Bingham with the stress of being fired, and found myself no longer looking forward to seeing his face on the big screen. This was somewhat disappointing, for a good portion of the movie, until Ryan has an epiphany, grows a conscience, and becomes a real human being.
Ryan’s job is to travel all over the United States, and fire people. His company basically leases him (and others like him) out, and off they go, like the grim reapers of financial stability. This means, of course, that Ryan is constantly traveling. There are a lot of truly beautiful shots of the cities Ryan flies to, from the viewpoint of where the planes are, up in the air. If you watch this movie and still have a job that you feel is reasonably secure, you might think the movie got it’s name because of Ryan’s constant traveling by plane. If you happen to be unemployed, you realize that the phrase “Up In the Air” is exactly how it feels when your job is gone, and you have no idea what you are supposed to do next.
Later on, Ryan unwillingly ends up traveling with a new co-worker, whom he is supposed to train. Now I’m watching scenes of terrified office workers, watching these two walk past the cubicles, down the hallways, and into the empty conference room. The co-worker carries a pile of folders that all look the same, and everyone knows that people are about to get fired. Who will it be?
The people who get fired in later scenes of the movie react in even more extreme ways. Someone breaks down and sobs, inconsolably like a small child, and it wasn’t a character I expected to do that. Another person yells, and throws a chair. One person very calmly and clearly states exactly what her plans are now that she has lost her job. It’s obvious she has been thinking of this particular plan for a long, long, time, and watching her talk about it, so plainly, showing no emotion, is extremely chilling. I wonder how many people got fired and reacted just like these characters did.
There is a scene where they enter an office so devastated by job cuts that the room is nearly empty of both workers and furniture. There are phones sitting on the floor, still plugged in, with no desks to sit on and no workers left to answer them. The secretary is crying, and looks as if she has been doing so for days on end. It’s like someone has died, and everyone is still grieving. This scene lasts maybe a minute or two, no lines of dialogue are spoken by anyone, and yet, it says volumes about what is going on in the real world today.
Of course, this movie isn’t only about people becoming unemployed. Ryan grows, makes a friend who becomes much more to him than just a one night stand, and even finds a way to reconnect with his estranged family. The young co-worker struggles with connecting concepts she learned in school with the real world applications of her education. She is also trying to figure out if her choice to “follow a boy” and take the job she currently works in, (instead of one offered to her someplace else), was a good idea. There is a lot of other things going on, and by the end, I found myself actually liking who Ryan Bingham turned into. All the actors were believable, and some were amazing. The cinematography might have told the story on it’s own, if the movie was silent, it was that well done. No doubt, “Up In the Air” is a great movie, and I highly recommend people go and see it, now, while it is so very relevant.
This movie is a strange one to watch, however, if you happen to be unemployed. No matter where you are, emotionally, in the process of dealing with not having a job anymore, somebody on the screen is going to be in the same place. You are either going to feel uncomfortable when you find that part, or, I expect some people to get a good, cathartic, cry out of it. That can be a good thing, sometimes. “No, I’m ok. I’m crying because I watched a sad movie”, one can rationalize. I think this would be therapeutic for some people.
I walked out of the theater after the movie was over with something I never expected to experience when I first decided to go see “Up In the Air”. It was the feeling that I am not alone. Even though I know that there are an inordinate amount of people who are unemployed right now, even though every day I read another news article about more people losing their jobs, on some level, it’s all just words. Here is this movie that, in many ways, is a mirror for what I have been dealing with. Here is a movie bringing attention to the massive unemployment problem, that affects real people, all over the place, and it’s not just me experiencing this!
On some level, I believe I needed to hear that.