{"id":1550,"date":"2010-01-19T15:25:28","date_gmt":"2010-01-19T22:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/attractwomenanywhere.com\/blog\/?p=1550"},"modified":"2010-05-31T22:09:53","modified_gmt":"2010-06-01T05:09:53","slug":"up-in-the-air-a-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/attractwomenanywhere.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/19\/up-in-the-air-a-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Up In The Air, a Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Up In The Air – George Clooney<\/span><\/h2>\n

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Will the real Ryan Bingham stand up?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Two weeks ago, I had a chance to see the new movie “Up In the Air” with a female friend of mine.\u00a0 While I enjoyed enjoyed watching the film, I also realized that I’d never really want to see it again.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 There is something off about it that I couldn’t put my finger on immediately.\u00a0 Then I realized the issue as the reason dawned me.<\/p>\n

It’s that the film deceives and confuses us with George Clooney.
\nI’ll explain.\u00a0 I like a lot of Clooney’s movies and I like that he understands his best assets.\u00a0 He understands what any\u00a0leading man type of actor knows:\u00a0 To bring a piece of himself into each character because that’s what makes a good leading man.<\/p>\n

Either way, I guess I’d qualify as a Clooney fan.\u00a0 I do enjoy his movies, (and\u00a0had he not been in this film, I would not have paid money to see it in the cinema), but probably even more so, I\u00a0am a \u00a0fan of the fact that he uses his celebrity for good causes.\u00a0 Whether he is raising funds for victims of 9\/11 or taking a dangerous trip to Dafur with his farther to raise awareness, he does try to create some sort of a positive socio-political difference.\u00a0 He seems genuine and sincere so it’d be difficult even for\u00a0a cynic to dislike George.<\/p>\n

OK, with that in mind, let’s get to the movie and Clooney’s chracter.\u00a0 He plays Ryan Bingham<\/strong>,\u00a0 a loner character who nearly travels on a plane every single day of the year.\u00a0 His fear of responsilbity is so great that he doesn’t own one piece of furniture in his apartment nor\u00a0 does he have any friends.\u00a0 He has completely neglected his family, his nieces and nephews, and the only thing that matters to him is accruing more Airline miles.\u00a0 On top of all that, his occupation is to fire people from their jobs every day of the year.\u00a0 That’s Bingham in a nutshell.<\/p>\n

Halfway through the film, I realize that I really dislike this Character.\u00a0 Ryan Bingham in some ways can be seen as\u00a0despicable.\u00a0 If he were walking the sidewalks of NYC and a grand\u00a0Piano landed on top of his head,you really wouldn’t care all that much about it as an audience member.<\/p>\n

There is the underlying problem.\u00a0 We as audience members like George Clooney.\u00a0 There is nothing likable about a guy obsessed with airline miles who has forsaken and forgotten his family and everyone else he has ever known, finding refuge sitting in airplanes and airports.\u00a0 We don’t care what\u00a0 happens to him.<\/p>\n

The ONLY Reason that we sit through this movie watching this character is because it’s being played by George Clooney.\u00a0 Anyone else, and some of us would walk out of the theater.\u00a0 But we like George. He is likable.\u00a0 We are not watching Ryan, we are watching George<\/strong>, or Danny friggin’ Ocean.<\/p>\n

Again, you can’t dislike a guy like that.\u00a0 It’s that Clooney has an interesting quality: He is inherently likable.<\/span> You could say the same about the veteran actor Jack Lemmon, (who passed away recently).\u00a0\u00a0 You feel sorry for him at the end of Glengarry Glenross.\u00a0 According to Jack Lemmon himself, you’re supposed to hate this “Levine” character as he is a bit of a\u00a0low life snakeoil salesman, but again,\u00a0\u00a0it’s difficult\u00a0\u00a0to dislike Lemmon.\u00a0 You feel sympathetic towards him.<\/p>\n

So back to “Up In the Air.”<\/p>\n

Depending on which perspective you look at it, Clooney is either miscast, or then again, casting him is a stroke of casting genius.\u00a0\u00a0 As you watch the film, you find yourself apathetic towards Ryan Bingham.\u00a0 You think to yourself, “Why am I wasting two hours of my life watching the story of some douchebag with no redeeming value?” <\/em>Then it hits you.\u00a0 You’re watching it because it’s Clooney, not Bingham.<\/p>\n

We do NOT\u00a0continue to watch this film becaue we are interested in Ryan Bingham.\u00a0 We watch because we are interested in George Clooney<\/span>. Think about this and you’ll find it to be true.\u00a0 You may have thought you were watching it because of Ryan, but you really were not.\u00a0\u00a0 So on the one hand, it’s casting genius but then, it’s miscasting when you feel empty walking out of the theater.<\/p>\n

The movie should have gone the other way.\u00a0 They should have cast someone who is inherently dis-likable: Someone like James Woods!\u00a0 (Not necessarily Woods, but someone who carries the same vibe & demeanor)<\/p>\n

We find James Woods objectionable even when he plays good guys!! Something about his demeanor speaks to our subconscious.\u00a0 It’s as if we inherently know Woods is a prick.\u00a0 We’ve all had a boss or a teacher or someone who was a complete prick and James Woods represents all of them in our psyche.\u00a0 The impact of the movie would have come to fruition if this story followed literature laws and learned something redeemable about becoming someone a little less self-absorbed.\u00a0\u00a0 And at the end, the character has to die.<\/p>\n

As it stands, “Ryan Bingham” writes a great recommendation letter for the younger woman in the film, representing his selfless act, but it’s not enough.\u00a0 His act of redemption needs to resonate with us more.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My female friend chose to see it as “He’s turned over a new leaf, he is a new person now.”\u00a0 Yet, she was unaffected by the character as well.\u00a0 I realize the angle of a scorned and bitterman who has engulfed himself in work ready to finally open up emotionally…. but the film doesn’t explore this character’s past.\u00a0 Hence, there has to be something substantial to make an impact.<\/p>\n

It’s how I’d done it.\u00a0 Yes, to some it’s cliche, but the only way to make character of Ryan Bingham impactful on the audience, is to kill his character.\u00a0 It’s the same reason Jack Nicholson’s McMurphy is destroyed at the end of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest<\/em>” and (unlike Bingham)\u00a0we the audience really actually like McMurphy.<\/p>\n

In this instance, if the point of the movie is to realize how so many people live boring mundane and self-absorbed lives, then his character needs to be killed in order to create a disturbance in the psyche of the audience emotionally. The movie more impactful if the selfish discpicle scrooge is killed off at the end, but does one heroric act that makes a difference, and allows him to realize this sort of eiphany…<\/p>\n

The way it’s made, you leave the theater with an apathetic feeling, “Ahh, could take it or leave it.”\u00a0 The bit of sympathy you feel for his character is only felt because you like Clooney’s charm, mannerisms and sincereity.\u00a0 The sympathy, hence, is really not for Ryan Bingham which is the flaw of this well intentioned, well directed,\u00a0and well acted film.<\/p>\n

So there you have the mixed emotions. The film is well acted, and well directed and yet you realize that you were completely apathetic towards professional loner, “Ryan Bingham,” except that you were watching George Clooney.<\/p>\n

——————————————————————-<\/p>\n

Up In The Air, As it relates to Dating.<\/p>\n

Anything useful regarding dating and attraction as far as this movie is concerned?\u00a0 Indirectly, yes.\u00a0 It’s the concept of “Banking on your likability.”<\/p>\n

A lot of guys seek dating advice from various sources, but along the way, sometimes they lose their way.\u00a0 They become too preoccupied with trying to learn how to use\u00a0techniques for every situation but they lose sight of banking on their best assets.\u00a0 Ever heard the expression “Put Your Best Foot Forward?”\u00a0 It’s an important notion in being more successful in dating.\u00a0 It’s learning to enhance your strengths, or building on your best traits.\u00a0 Different people are gifted with various traits, whether it’s intelligence, a great sense of humor, superior athletic ability and so forth.<\/p>\n

You can learn to lead with your best foot forward, displaying your best assets.\u00a0 You have to first discover what that is, be it charm, charisma, passion, or whatever.\u00a0 Then you must learn to utilize that trait as your proverbial “Best Foot Forward” as you turn into a strength that works for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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