Up in the Air 2009

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Jason Reitman's dry, moving "comedy," based on the Walter Kirn novel, is a sly indictment of Corporate America, Marketing America and Frequent Flying America. Read more

A.O. Scott, At the Movies: I think that this is a classic in the making. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Up in the Air has been shaped for Clooney's prodigious, slightly melancholy charm as a comic leading man. Happily he has worthy sparring partners. Read more

Kathleen Murphy, MSN Movies: ... it goes a long way to renewing our faith that movies can tackle grown-up comedy resonant with real-life dilemmas and tragedy, often beyond our ability to grasp or control. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Clooney -- slim, dark, perfectly tailored -- glamorizes insincerity in a way that makes you want to go out and lie. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: How often can you fault a wonderful comedy for an excess of humanity or plausibility? Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Up in the Air takes the trust people once had in their jobs and pulls out the rug. It is a film for this time. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's a timely tale of job loss and economic upheaval, at times hidden behind screwball-comedy dialogue. And it isn't perfect, but when it works -- which is most of the time -- it works like gangbusters. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Jason Reitman's direction nicely translates the seductive appeal of sterile public places while letting the assured performances do much of the work. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Up in the Air is actually several good movies -- a workplace comedy, romantic comedy, and family comedy -- seated on the same flight in the same aisle. They all feel forced together. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It's hard to think of an actor who's better at projecting the professional smoothness that's essential to make this character palatable, but Clooney turns out to be willing to take that persona further. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Reitman deserves credit for going through with a bitterly ironic ending, but the movie is marred by its warm condescension toward flyover country. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Ryan is an antihero for these parlous times and, of course, since he's played by Clooney, we wait for him to redeem himself and become a full-fledged hero. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Few recent films have been so adroit at looking outward while burrowing inward. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: From taxi to touchdown, Reitman knows how to get us to the next destination. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Director Jason Reitman brings such splendid balance and nuance to Bingham's story that you can't hate the man; indeed you end up pitying him. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Up in the Air is light and dark, hilarious and tragic, romantic and real. It's everything that Hollywood has forgotten how to do; we're blessed that Jason Reitman has remembered. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: This is Jason Reitman's first film since Juno, and it's easy to see why actors and audiences are attracted to his visual eye. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Clooney has no peer at conveying suave, unflappable charm, but the role of Ryan requires the actor to do something different with his persona: Deflate the illusion and explore the emptiness beneath the cool. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: Reitman has an impeccable talent for tearing out the spine of a novel and transposing it to the big screen, streamlining and simplifying a literary work without dumbing it down. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: In its funny, rueful way, Up in the Air touches contemporary American notes few Hollywood movies acknowledge. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: The tension between the bleak and the blithe, the prime source of this movie's strength, is sustained by Reitman to the end. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The film glides to a perfect landing, leaving several characters changed, one coldly untouched and nothing up in the air at all -- except, perhaps, the question of what this very talented crew is going to do next. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: A lovely Hollywood romance that floats buoyantly along on a sea of sadness. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The pitch-perfect direction by Jason Reitman perfectly balances comedy and drama. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Up in the Air often looks like an American Airlines commercial, and I wouldn't call it a feel-good movie per se, but there's a certain satisfaction watching two snappy, beautiful people at the top of their form. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: I don't know if it's the best movie of the year, but it's the most utterly enjoyable. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Up in the Air never cheats and delivers an almost perfect mix of humor, satire, and underplayed drama. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: If Reitman's first two films were triples, this is a home run. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: One-word reaction: bravo. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: The picture is brushed with a fine glaze of slickness, a product sealed in a blister pack. It's like airplane air -- it has a packaged freshness that isn't really fresh at all. Read more

Amy Biancolli, San Francisco Chronicle: Once again, Reitman the screenwriter gives Reitman the director an excuse to ponder the spaces between us and the ties that bind. Or don't. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Jason Reitman's third film has the lifespan of a state-fair churro: tasty at the point of consumption, it congeals soon afterward into its component ingredients of sugar and lard. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It would be easy to make Ryan a louse or a hero who just needs a bit of armor polish. Clooney makes Ryan both ruthless and sympathetic. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Now arriving at the main terminal is the movie of the year. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Reitman possesses a flair for off-kilter scenarios, and he's in fine form again, taking his triangulated principals -- Ryan, Alex, Keener -- out of their comfort zones and into a more complicated geometry. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: George Clooney has never seemed more vulnerable or more in tune with a role than he does in Up in the Air, a film that will be hard to beat for Best Picture come Oscar time. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: A movie about a guy who fires people, released at a time when at least a tenth of the work force is out of work, is utterly nervy. And wonderful. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: Reitman, who also cowrote the screenplay, feels the constant need to "deepen" his characters, granting them wants and motivations -- especially during the moralistic third act -- that are totally alien to how they're initially portrayed. Read more

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: It's a pleasure to watch an adult American comedy that tries to deal with the real world, however much of a fantasy it carves from it. Read more

Christopher Orr, The New Republic: Reitman has given us a witty, elegant movie that is nonetheless, like its protagonist, somewhat aloof from the vicissitudes experienced by mere mortals. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Timeliness can be tricky to pull off convincingly in movies. It's tough to capture an era while it's still happening, yet Up in the Air does so brilliantly, with wit and humanity. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: A slickly engaging piece of lightweight existentialism highlighted by winning turns from George Clooney and Vera Farmiga. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Like Juno, Up in the Air conjures a troubling reality and then wishes it away. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Up in the Air is a timeless movie that's utterly of its time -- a movie of humor, heart and mind. Read more