Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

The Joneses ***1/2

 

Lightweight Indie dramedy The Joneses romps through guerilla marketing and the true yearnings of the soul. David Duchovny and Demi Moore play Steve and Kate Jones, a virtual husband and wife.

As The Joneses move into a suburban mansion, we discover that they are actors, an upscale marketing team impersonating a family. Every time the doorbell rings, they're onstage. 

As mother/onsite manager, Kate monitors her group's individual sales and coaches them like a fervent soccer mom. Hubby Steve and teenagers Mick (Ben Hollingsworth) and Jenn (Amber Heard) market clothes and alcoholic drinks as they mingle with new contacts.

At first The Joneses excel, but Steve's numbers lag. The group's handler (superb Lauren Hutton) visits on the sponsors' behalf. Privately she tells Kate that she's worried about Steve. Kate promises to evoke his best talents.

A former salesman with a conscience, Steve learns quickly with an ulterior motive.  He's really got the hots for his "wife."  Too bad smart, glamorous Kate is all business.

Steve frequents the golf course, applying viral marketing that soon make him the Joneses' sales front runner. Hutton now meets privately with Steve, luring him with the promise of becoming an "Icon" marketer with special privileges.

Steve takes advantage of a neighbor going through a midlife crisis, Larry (Gary Cole). It's not a genuine friendship. Steve will have to face the consequences of toying with impressionable Larry. Glenne Headley plays Larry's cosmetics-hawking wife Summer.

Aside from a preachy third act, writer-director David Borte succeeds with this satire, mostly because of its excellent cast. Duchovny (The X-Files; Californication) and Moore (The Scarlet Letter; G.I. Jane) are very good. Heard (The Beautiful Ordinary) and Hollingsworth (Heartland) give us much food for thought as they look for love while marketing.

The beautiful bling of The Joneses is part of the film's pleasures. Kate's kitchen gleams with granite countertops, cherry wood cabinets and a Krups coffee maker. Kate's Dell laptop is always at the ready. The Joneses truly shift to high gear when they host a soiree. Every conversation praises the best beer, the best cocktails and the flash frozen sushi.

 

In satire's best tradition, the neighbors go along with the show, not even suspecting that the Joneses are playing them.

The Joneses is Borte's directing debut. Randy Dinzler co-wrote the script with Borte.

If you like The Joneses you might enjoy: Date Night; Just Go With It; City Island; The Kids are All Right.

The Joneses  2009 / R / 1 hr, 36 min

Cast Overview: David Duchovny, Demi Moore, Amber Heard, Ben Hollingsworth, Gary Cole, Glenne Headly, Lauren Hutton, Chris Williams, Andrew DiPalma

Director: Derrick Borte

Genres: Drama, Indie Drama, Dramedy

Just Go With It ***

 

Light romantic comedy Just Go With It is just good fun, a glam Hollywood farce far removed from its origins (Cactus Flower, both the 1965 Broadway play and the 1969 movie starring Walter Matthau, Goldie Hawn and Ingrid Bergman). 

The bigger the lies, the more ridiculous the situations that entangle deadpan plastic surgeon Adam Sandler (Danny Maccabee) and his trusty office manager Katherine (Jennifer Aniston). Reminiscent of the ethnic indie comedy City Island (2009), Just Go With It is Hollywood’s take on romantic possibilities and pratfalls.

If being ourselves is not good enough, why not invent someone new?

When Dr. Maccabee meets beautiful young school teacher Palmer (Brooklyn Decker) at a party, they spend a night on the beach.  His habit of inventing a doomed marriage has boosted his sex appeal thus far. When Palmer discovers a wedding ring in his pocket, Danny is forced to continue the ruse. Danny turns to divorced Katherine to impersonate his soon-to-be ex.

Katherine takes full advantage with a Rodeo Drive shopping spree on Danny. Bling as a fact of life becomes both enticing and ridiculous. Her drop dead high heels cost $1700, and of course she’ll take the matching bag. Katherine's kids (Bailee Madison and Griffin Gluck) extract the most out of their new “rich dad” when they visit a trendy Los Angeles play spot/restaurant.

Friends alum Aniston is at her comic best as she complements cool, prickly Sandler with straight-talking warmth.  The gags are mostly funny, especially when a procession of nip tuck candidates (and survivors) visit the doctor’s office.

 

A Hawaiian playcation adds to the pure fun. Kauai is stunning and soothing. Bikini girls (hot Aniston and former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Decker) are scrumptious, although we may wonder what they see in paunchy Danny.

Just Go With It has been criticized for stereotyping. A Mexican nanny is skewered. Older women who hula dance are dissed. Gay sailors are portrayed as party boys.  But the movie is so silly overall that the politically incorrect moments mock themselves.  

Nicole Kidman adds considerable glam and sparkling fun when she appears in the third act as Katherine’s frenemy Devlin. Including Kidman gives Just Go With It more depth. She thoroughly enjoys herself here.

Accompanying Devlin is her hubby (none other than rocker Dave Matthews). 

Katherine’s pretend boyfriend Dolph (bawdy Nick Swardson) is appropriately revolting with a horrible German accent, toilet bowl humor and an unfortunate scene with a sheep.

Honesty is not a punch line as it wraps up the film.  Aniston is moving in a momentous scene.

If you like Just Go With It you might enjoy: City Island; The Blind Side; The Kids are All Right. 

Just Go With It   2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 50 min

Cast Overview:  Adam Sandler, Jennifer Aniston, Nick Swardson, Brooklyn Decker, Dave Matthews, Bailee Madison, Kevin Nealon, Griffin Gluck, Nicole Kidman.

Director:  Dennis Dugan

Genres:  Romantic Comedy

The Company Men ****

 

The upper crust marches on in The Company Men, an exploration of life after downsizing and enterprise revisited in the new global economy.

Three men lose their six-figure jobs at conglomerate GTX in order to boost its stock price prior to a merger. Ben Affleck plays Bobby, a VP of Sales; Tommy Lee Jones plays Gene, a conflicted division chief, and Chris Cooper is Phil, a lifetime company man who began as a welder in its now-idle shipyard.  Of the three, Cooper has been given the most moving role to play, and his performance is stellar.

When Bobby loses his Porsche and his son returns his Game Boy, it’s tough to muster much sympathy for the characters at first.  Months later, Bobby discovers that there are no jobs available and his severance pay is running out. His top notch sales skills don't matter. He keeps searching via an outplacement firm touting rah-rah career strategies. 

Bobby discovers the willingness to recreate himself and act boldly in a crisis. "You are what you do" takes on a whole new meaning in crisis. Bobby and Gene find and reaffirm their innate human value, redefining self-respect.

Bobby’s family digs in as his wife Maggie (feisty Rosemarie DeWitt) returns to part-time nursing and puts their pricey home on the market.  He must swallow his pride and accept a construction job from his irritating brother-in-law Jack (Kevin Costner). As a gruff, funny wise guy, Costner brings a refreshing middle class perspective into the film.

Phil struggles the most as an outplacement counselor advises him to dye his hair and to remove “anything pre-1990” from his resume.  Something is gained but much is lost in this strategy of erasing one’s past to appear younger.

Phil is devastated that he is unable to meet his daughter’s next tuition payment at Brown. In a poignant scene, he shouts and throws rocks at the glittering windows of corporate headquarters in the middle of the night.  Cooper highlights the dilemma of older Americans who still have much to contribute in an environment that does not value them.

Gene fills the emptiness of his existence in an affair with human resources downsizer Sally Wilcox (gutsy, sexy Maria Bello). He seems genuinely concerned about the hundreds who have been downsized, and has lost any feeling for his materialistic wife and their antique-filled mansion.

 

The cold villains of The Company Men are CEO James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson) who rakes in $22 million for himself as he shops for sleek new corporate offices; and Bello’s Wilcox, a suave executioner who claims she feels guilty while she chops heads.

The Company Men doesn’t cover much new ground. George Clooney’s unforgettable performance in Up in the Air had more depth as his downsizing launched him on a powerful inward search.

Another disappointment is The Company Men’s choppy editing.  Director John Wells was executive producer for The West Wing and ER.

The film brings up a few clichés. Bobby discovers the gifts of quality time with his son as they shoot hoops on the driveway.  “You have me,” Maggie reminds her despairing husband.  Bobby admits that he’s relieved to be free of constant corporate fears and pressures.

As Gene and Bobby walk through a rusty, deserted shipyard, Gene begins to smell new opportunity. Success will mean starting all over again.

If you liked The Company Men, you might enjoy Up in the Air; Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Casino Jack.

The Company Men  2010  /  R  /  1 hour, 44 min

Cast Overview:  Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Craig T. Nelson, Maria Bello, Rosemarie DeWitt, John Doman, Tonye Patano, Cady Huffman

Director:  John Wells

Genres:  Drama, Indie Drama

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps ****

 

Gordon Gekko becomes the conscience of Wall Street in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.  The showcase for talented Michael Douglas, reprising his role as the financial district’s greedy king, features striking talent Shia LaBeouf as Jake Moore, the whip-smart trader who’s about to marry Gekko’s daughter.

Douglas has kept the fire of Wall Street’s Gekko, who has acquired some wisdom during his eight years in prison.  His one major regret: the chasm between him and his daughter Winnie (understated shooting star Carey Mulligan), who blames him for her brother’s death by overdose and almost everything else.  Winnie is the CEO of a small, progressive internet page that leaks big news stories.  The inheritance she keeps mum about, $100 million in a Swiss bank account, becomes key later on in this story.

As Gekko hawks his book Is Greed Good?, he speaks to an eager audience at Fordham University. The gem of this film’s excellent dialogue is Gekko’s speech, part of which follows:

“I once said, ‘Greed is good.’ Now it seems it’s legal. It’s greed that makes the country cut the interest rates to one percent after 9/11 so we could all go shopping again. And we got all these fancy names for trillions of dollars of credit. . . . I’ll tell you what they are. They’re WMDs, weapons of mass destruction. When I was away it seemed like greed got greedier, with a little bit of envy mixed in.  . . . Mr. Banker, he starts leveraging his interests up to 40, 50 to one. With your money, not his. Because he could. You’re supposed to be borrowing, not them.  And the beauty of the deal, no one is responsible.  Because everyone’s drinking the same Kool-aid.

“Last year ladies and gentlemen, 40 percent of all American corporate profits came from financial services. Not production, not anything remotely to do with the needs of the American public. The truth is, we’re all part of it now. . . . We take a buck, we shoot it full of steroids, and we call it ‘leverage.’ I call it ‘steroid banking.’ It’s clear as a bell to those that pay attention. The mother of all evil is speculation. Leveraged debt. Bottom line. It’s borrowing to the hilt. And I hate to tell you this, but it’s a bankrupt business model. It won’t work. It’s systemic, malignant, and it’s global. Like cancer. It’s a disease, and we got to fight back.”

Gekko wraps up his dramatic insights (one of Douglas’ finest deliveries, reminiscent of his American President climactic soliloquy) with a plug for his book. “Prices and profits work,” he shouts to the applauding group of young traders and business students.

Soon Gekko meets Moore, an idealist specializing in clean energy technology. (“That’s smart. That’s the next bubble,” he quips.)  The problem is that Moore faces major hurdles lining up financing for a small, promising fusion start-up company.

Gekko gives ten minutes to his future son-in-law, dispensing more advice: “Money’s a bitch. She lies there in bed at night with you, looking at you, one eye open. Money’s a bitch that never sleeps.”

Moore has been shaken by the suicide of his Wall Street mentor Lou (Frank Langella) and fears his own impending layoff. As the 2008 financial meltdown proceeds, he goes to work for the street’s newest kingpin, Bretton James (Josh Brolin). Over time Gekko shares insider gossip about James and his cronies:

“They knew this home loan fantasy was going to collapse the market. And when they did they got the Fed to bail out their bad insurance swaps 100 cents on the dollar. The system is insolvent. No one knows what to do next except repeat the same insanity until the next bubble blows. Talk about an evil empire, this puts me to shame.  And I’m small time compared to these crooks.”

Moral hazard, Gekko preaches, happens when “someone takes your money and is not responsible for it.” He views his own past transgressions as a victimless crime.

The new father figure and young Moore make a trade. Gekko gives Moore a childhood photo of his daughter, and Moore promises to give him Winnie’s current photo and set up a dinner reunion with the conflicted beauty.

 

Featuring great acting and plot twists, the film includes a blunt confrontation between Moore and Gekko. LaBeouf gives a particularly stunning performance.

Adding depth are Brolin in his super-villainous role, and Susan Sarandon as Jake's needy mother.

Stone succeeds with a sweeping, moral drama that comes close to capturing the complexities of the ongoing financial mess sweeping America and the world. Rodrigo Prieto beautifully captures Manhattan in full, glittering splendor as Stone delivers a wry wink to greed and honor.

According to Gekko, his thrill has never been about the money. “It’s about the game,” he says, “the game between people.”

If you like Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, you might enjoy Solitary Man; An Education; Up in the Air.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps  2010  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 18 min

Cast Overview:  Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, Eli Wallach, Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella, Austin Pendleton, John Bedford Lloyd

Director:  Oliver Stone

Genres:  Drama

Somewhere ****

 

Fascinating, minimalist Somewhere is pure experience. With long, beautifully realized scenes and little dialogue, Sofia Coppola directs her steady, unsentimental gaze at one man’s meaningless existence in Hollywood. This could be Tinseltown gazing at its own navel.

Somewhere immediately plunges into the emptiness of Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff), as his black Ferrari circles a deserted race track for several long minutes.  The shrill engine is nerve grating. At last, Marco stops the car and gets out.

A movie star between jobs who lives at Los Angeles’ famed Chateau Marmont, Marco is bored.  A regular on the party circuit, he stumbles downstairs one night and breaks his arm. In this solid role for talented Dorff, the actor’s natural sweetness makes him likeable even as an aimless mess.

Lingering in bed, Marco watches a pair of blonde, teenage pole dancers cavort in his room. Coppola captures the synchronized moves of the grinning, nubile pair languorously. A randy tune blares from a portable DVD player. On pain meds, Marco barely notices and nods off. It’s a Fellini-like moment with the pathos of Bill Murray sitting on his bed in Lost in Translation. 

The first one to sign Marco’s arm cast – and a redeeming bright spot in her dad’s foggy depression – is his daughter Cleo. Played with style, honesty and clarity by 12-year-old Elle Fanning, Cleo is dropped off periodically by Marco’s self-involved ex Layla (Lala Sloatman). When Layla faces a crisis, she asks Marco to take Cleo for a few days before sending her off to camp.

Marco brings Cleo along on a publicity trip to Italy. Through a child’s eyes, we see some of the wonders of his experience during their stay at Milan’s luxurious Hotel Principe Di Savoia. Cleo gets to swim in the private pool in her dad’s suite while he lounges in the hot tub.  In the middle of the night, Marco orders them two of every flavor from the hotel’s sorbet menu.  Fanning is superb as a Hollywood child, and seizes the opportunity to reveal her insecurities during a tearful scene in the Ferrari.

 

With Cleo away at camp, Marco settles into his usual routine – one-night stands, parties, drinking, chain smoking.  The ornate, seedy interiors of the Chateau Marmont reflect his inner landscape. Anything goes where the glamorous and rudderless walk like ghosts.   

To prepare for his next role, Marco attends a fitting where his entire head is covered with plaster. For 40 minutes he sits still, breathing through two small holes. His terror is palpable. It’s another scene where Coppola lingers to the point of acute discomfort.  Later the actor tries on the prosthetic made for him.  “Jesus!” he exclaims at his 80-year-old image in the mirror. 

Benicio Del Toro’s cameo adds a classy touch. When Marco recognizes him in the hotel elevator, the two grunt niceties in a brief, warm moment.

Coppola and cinematographer Harris Savides achieve a realism that can be disarming as Marco fumbles into a search for true worth.  Somewhere is a fine addition to Coppola’s explorations of loneliness and life meaning in Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette.

In an interview in Cinema Blend, the director spoke about Johnny Marco. “I had a dozen different people in mind when I was writing the character . . . I wanted him to be his own guy based on folklore.”  Coppola also drew on her childhood memories of spending time with her father Francis Ford Coppola.  “I remember him teaching me about craps in a casino and that’s something that was fun that kids don’t usually get to do. So that aspect of the kind of fun, bigger-than-life, father I tried to put in the story.”

If you like Somewhere, you might enjoy Wild Grass, I Am Love, I'm Still Here.

Somewhere   2010  /  R  /  1 hour, 37 min

Cast Overview:   Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Chris Pontius, Erin Wasson, Alexandra Williams, Nathalie Fay, Kristina Shannon, Karissa Shannon, Laura Chiatti, Lala Sloatman

Director:  Sofia Coppola

Genres:  Drama, Indie Drama

 

Avatar *****

 

The awe is back. Avatar, the Oscar-winning sci-fi fantasy thriller from director James Cameron, transforms science fiction cinema.

Impressive 3D technologies and motion capture techniques keep audiences spellbound for two and a half hours, after which they leave theaters feeling 10 feet tall.

Avatar immerses us in heaven (a phosphorescent land of brilliant orange flowers, shimmering trees and floating jellyfish) and hell (fierce, flying dragons and massive rhino-like Hammerheads). Over 500 plants and creatures appear.

Avatar's reverence for nature, with its theme of oneness and unity, reaches across time and culture. Indigenous wisdom here turns out to be quite advanced. Thus Avatar surpasses The Matrix and Star Wars, along with Cameron's previous films Titanic, The Terminator and Aliens.

Over 2,000 people worked for three years on Avatar, with a budget approaching $300 million. Cameron first envisioned the masterpiece 15 years ago, but had to wait for computer technology to catch up.

Strong, quiet hero Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a paraplegic ex-Marine has been asked to become an avatar, a genetically grown being resembling the Na'vi who inhabit planet Pandora.

The Na'vi are exquisitely blue with silver-white speckles, golden cat-like eyes and moving ears. They are slender, sport long tails and stand 10 feet tall. Jake is to mingle with the Na'vi as a spy. He is ordered to sway them to allow strip mining of a precious metal (unobtainium).

The Na'vi live within a huge tree that sits right over a rich deposit. Col. Miles Quaritch (gung-ho Stephen Lang) and his mercenaries seek to expel the Na'vi for a corporation that funds the scientific research of Dr. Grace Augustine (always superb Sigourney Weaver).

After some personality conflicts and information-filled dialogue, the film alights as Jake lies down in his Matrix-like pod. Here his mind controls a handsome, new avatar that in effect allows Jake to walk again.

With terrifying CGI creatures in pursuit, Jake is separated from a scouting party. Soon he's rescued by noble Neytiri (graceful Zoe Saldana). Neytiri is the daughter of Eytukan (Wes Studi) and the shaman Moat (CCH Pounder).

 

Neytiri scorns the alien Jake. "You have a strong heart, no fear, but stupid." Since she has received a sign from the Atokirina, delicate floating spores with pure hearts, Jake's fate is to be decided by Eytukan.

Jake is trained to become one with the Na'vi. Before long he's leading their efforts to resist the aliens he once worked for.

In one of the best scenes of the film, Jake tames a flying dragon who becomes his ally. Also stirring is the extended shock and awe battle as Quaritch makes his last stand against Jake and the Na'vi.

Avatar catapults Worthington (Clash of the Titans) and Soldana (Star Trek [2009]) into stardom. Weaver worked for Cameron previously as the heroine of Aliens. Giovanni Ribisi (Lost in Translation) is excellent as a murderous corporate lackey.

Avatar won Oscars for Art Direction, Cinematography and Special Effects.

If you like Avatar, you might enjoy: Inception; Hereafter; 127 Hours.

Avatar 2009 / PG-13 / 2 hrs, 30 min

Cast Overview: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Stephen Lang, Joel Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, CCH Pounder, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi

Director: James Cameron

Genres: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Sci-Fi Action, Sci-Fi Adventure

Casino Jack ***

 

Kevin Spacey’s one man show as lobbyist Jack Abramoff makes Casino Jack a vivid if depressing leap into pay-to-play politics and governance in the United States. Spacey earned a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for the role.

Spacey’s megalomaniac Abramoff is so larger than life that every character around him fades, save for Barry Pepper as his sidekick Michael Scanlon. Even their partners (Kelly Preston as Jack’s conscience-ridden wife and Rachelle Lefevre as Scanlon’s revenge-driven fiancee) seem little more than greedy hangers-on.  Who could blame them?

The perks and woes of wealth are many for Abramoff and Scanlon. Jack buys a new school for his kids (he’s dissatisfied with the quality of their private schools).  He splurges on mansions, private jets, and a political junket to the Marianas even as his home mortgage payments go delinquent. To support their lifestyles, the pair begin to bend laws and ethical guidelines, charging exorbitant fees to their Indian casino clients.

The structure of the film reflects Abramoff’s world view.  He’s the star, surrounded by a society of mediocre drones who work 40 hours a week and just scrape by. Not him.  He’s a smart visionary whose job is to influence politicians. “I will not allow my family to be slaves!” he shouts at the mirror during his daily pep talk.

Despite a plot that gets bogged down in complex dealings, Spacey soars as a superlobbyist who thinks he’s a vital cog in Washington’s machinery. Lobbyists research, inform and guide elected officials, he says. They make sure pols vote “correctly” (according to the wishes of mega-bucks corporations and conglomerates). 

When Abramoff opens the only kosher restaurant in D.C., it seems more a ruse to hook new clients and get his picture on the front page of the business section rather than a reflection of goodwill. Jack does have a few redeeming virtues.  He’s a family man (for brief snatches of time) and an observant Jew.  He loves movies. Spacey delivers dead-on impersonations of Ronald Reagan and Al Pacino.

 
Abramoff’s grilling before John McCain’s Indian Affairs Committee becomes a montage of factual retelling and the scene that could have been.  Senators behind the microphones are cast as compromised buffoons who wheedle on the same level as the man they’re scapegoating. Several members of the House (including Tom DeLay) were convicted in the wake of the investigations.

When Scanlon sells him out for a lighter sentence, Abramoff tells his partner in sleaze he’ll miss him over a final game of racquet. It’s predictable that prisoner Abramoff expounds on political affairs, typing frenzied letters to U.S. presidents. He lectures fellow inmates on the Torah as illustrated in movie themes.  

Jon Lovitz delivers a comedic take on Abramoff’s frontman Adam Kidan afloat on a rollicking casino ship. Graham Greene plays a determined Saginaw Chippewa tribal council leader.

Director George Hickenlooper died several months after Casino Jack’s filming.  Abramoff recently completed his four year sentence for fraud, corruption and conspiracy.  

If you like Casino Jack, you might enjoy: Fair Game; Greenberg; Please Give.

Casino Jack  2010  /  R  /  1 hour, 48 min

Cast Overview:  Kevin Spacey, Barry Pepper, Jon Lovitz, Graham Greene, Rachelle Lefevre, Kelly Preston, Hannah Endicott-Douglas, John Robinson, Spencer Garrett, Jeffrey R. Smith, Christian Campbell

Director:  George Hickenlooper

Genres:  Biopic, Docudrama, Drama

 

Up in the Air *****

 

"Be yourself, dare to be up in the air"  is the message in Jason Reitman's romantic drama Up in the Air. Best Actor nominee George Clooney is the suave, smart and lonely Ryan Bingham, a "termination specialist" who delivers peppy sweet-talk about new opportunities and generous severance packages.  

Ryan himself loves nothing more than to let go. With no home of his own, his frequent travels relieve him of the pain and baggage of human relationships. Ryan’s new connection with another frequent flyer Alex (Vera Farmiga in a butt-kicking performance that earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination) may change his views.

When an inexperienced but talented recent grad Natalie (Anna Kendrick, another Oscar nominee) suggests a cost-saving scheme, Ryan's jet set way of life is threatened. He then brings Natalie into the field so she can terminate dedicated, hard-working people face-to-face.

Here Clooney becomes Yoda, an existential road philosopher observing America: its economy, technology, human connections and eternal search for the male and female soul. Alex and Natalie both teach Ryan about relationships, each in her own way. Jason Bateman is Ryan’s high-strung boss.  Danny McBride is raw and honest as Ryan’s future brother-in-law.

Great character development happens between Kendrick and Clooney during their road trip, and later between Farmiga and Clooney as they attend the wedding of Ryan's sister.  Snappy dialogue and great comedic timing are evident throughout.

Up in the Air reveals uncertainty and not knowing as a place of power. The closing credits feature vignettes accompanied by the title song lyrics.

If you like Up in the Air, you might enjoy: The Company Men; The American; Two Lovers.

Up in the Air  2009  /  R  /  1 hr, 49 min

Cast Overview: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Melanie Lynskey, Danny R. McBride, Amy Morton, J.K. Simmons

Director: Jason Reitman

Genres: Drama, Romantic Drama, Romantic Comedy