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Up in the Air (2009)

tomatometer

91

Average Rating: 8.1/10
Reviews Counted: 256
Fresh: 232 | Rotten: 24

Led by charismatic performances by its three leads, director Jason Reitman delivers a smart blend of humor and emotion with just enough edge for mainstream audiences.

90

Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 41
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 4

Led by charismatic performances by its three leads, director Jason Reitman delivers a smart blend of humor and emotion with just enough edge for mainstream audiences.

audience

76

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 200,715

My Rating

Movie Info

Jason Reitman's adaptation of the novel Up in the Air tells the story of Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), who makes his living personally handing out pink slips -- he's the top hatchet man at a company that other companies hire when they are downsizing. And since business is booming, his job keeps him on the go constantly. He flies all across the country, staying in a series of nice hotels. And although this itinerant lifestyle prevents him from having any kind of stable, regular life, this

R, 1 hr. 49 min.

Drama, Romance, Comedy

Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

Mar 9, 2010

$83.8M

Paramount Pictures

Cast

All Critics (256) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (235) | Rotten (24) | DVD (10)

The pitch-perfect direction by Jason Reitman perfectly balances comedy and drama.

January 4, 2010 Full Review Source: New York Post | Comment
New York Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

December 24, 2009 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

From taxi to touchdown, Reitman knows how to get us to the next destination.

December 11, 2009 Full Review Source: Denver Post | Comment
Denver Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

December 10, 2009 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I think that this is a classic in the making.

December 7, 2009 Full Review Source: At the Movies | Comment
At the Movies
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

December 6, 2009 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There is perhaps no film that represents the present better ...

November 5, 2011 Full Review Source: Star-Democrat (Easton, MD) | Comment
Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)

Sometimes, it suggests, you can fly 10 million miles but never really go anywhere at all.

September 30, 2011 Full Review Source: American Profile | Comment

Up in the Air succeeds because it doesn't take itself that seriously and it's not interested in trying to explain obvious truths to the rest of us plebeians. It just wants to show a moment of fundamental change in a man's life.

March 21, 2011 Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | Comment
ComingSoon.net

Just when you start to wonder where the surprise twists will happen, Reitman defies conventional storytelling.

January 31, 2011 Full Review Source: Las Vegas CityLife | Comment

Incisive and occasionally sad, this captured the zeitgeist of the late-Zeroes' tectonically shifting economics. But Jason Reitman's generous, rich, rewarding tragicomedy of occupational dissatisfaction will still wow viewers even after (hopeful) recovery.

November 22, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com | Comment
Suite101.com

Up in the Air is so funny, so consistently surprising and so emotionally in-touch that it could have only been crafted by one of the most soulful directors working today.

October 21, 2010 Full Review Source: Quickflix | Comment

Companionship. Independence. Loyalty. Flyer miles. All are a part of the life of George Clooney's corporate downsizer in the timely, and timeless, Up in the Air.

July 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Matt's Movie Reviews | Comment
Matt's Movie Reviews

One of the pleasures of the film is watching Jason Reitman blossom into a filmmaker light years ahead of the one who made the underwhelming Thank You For Smoking and the overly self-conscious Juno.

July 4, 2010 Full Review Source: DCist | Comment

George Clooney is thoroughly likeable as the amusingly callous Ray - even watching him at the heart-breaking job of terminating folk en-masse is fun, but it is the women that give the film its heart.

July 4, 2010 Comment
Screenwize

Reitman further perfects his sharp, funny, and affecting seriocomic style in crafting films that wildly entertain in the moment and then linger long in the mind and heart.

May 16, 2010 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com

Life happens... live it one day at a time and connect to whomever you can, even if it's the person losing their job sitting right across from you.

April 12, 2010 Full Review Source: MovieCrypt.com | Comment
MovieCrypt.com

One of the things that makes George Clooney a great movie star is that he's always letting us know just how much fun he's having being George Clooney.

March 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Philadelphia Weekly | Comment
Philadelphia Weekly

While it is a good film, a worthy film, a thoughtful film, I'm not sure it is really an Oscar-calibre film. (Blu-ray Edition)

March 16, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

As much as it is a comedy in the classic Tracy/Hepburn mold, "Up in the Air" is very much a drama of the moment.

March 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Salt Lake Tribune | Comment
Salt Lake Tribune

Hay tantos ángulos desde donde se puede hablar de esta cinta -responsabilidad social, management, internet, matrimonio, soledad%u2026- que está desde ya, destinada a convertirse en un clásico.

March 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinenganos | Comment
Cinenganos

A 21st Century take on downsizing and dating in this no-strings attached age of outsourcing and friends with benefits.

March 9, 2010 Full Review Source: Sly Fox | Comment
Sly Fox

Well-polished bull**** at best, manifest of nothing less than everything wrong with America today.

March 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Projection Booth | Comments (9)
Projection Booth

Think what you will of it, the movie says a number of different things to a number of different people.

March 5, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment (1)
Movie Metropolis
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Up in the Air

I've seen this film at least seven or eight times. It's one of my favorites because it blends together so many important emotional themes into a striking cinematic balance of drama and comedy that most anyone will enjoy and relate to. But also, having seen it as much as I have, I can say that I still get something new

July 30, 2010
rjayhutchinson

Super Reviewer

Beautifully directed, Beautifully Acted, Beautiful Film. George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, who's job is to travel America and fire people. Up in the air is a perfect blend of Humour and Romance. George Clooney is fantastic in the lead role. Brilliant Heart warming Comedy from the creators of Juno..

January 29, 2012
Joseph Mcnicholas

Super Reviewer

    1. Natalie Keener: How can you not think about that? How does it not even cross your mind that you might want a future with someone?
    2. Ryan Bingham: It's simple; you know that moment when you look into somebody's eyes and you can feel them staring into your soul and the whole world goes quiet... just for a second?
    3. Natalie Keener: Yes!
    4. Ryan Bingham: Right, well I don't.
    – Submitted by Alejandro O (2 months ago)
    1. Ryan Bingham: You know why kids love athletes?
    2. Bob: Because they screw lingerie models.
    3. Ryan Bingham: No, that's why we love athletes. Kids love them because they follow their dreams.
    – Submitted by Kimberly Faith P (2 months ago)
    1. Natalie Keener: I'm not afraid to be married to my career. And I don't expect it to hold me in bed as I go to sleep.
    – Submitted by Diego T (3 months ago)
    1. Ryan Bingham: Appropriate? Ryan, I'm not some waitress you banged in a snowstorm. That word has no place in our vocabulary.
    – Submitted by Diego T (3 months ago)
    1. Alex Goran: Ryan, I'm not some waitress you banged in a snowstorm. That word has no meaning in our vocabulary.
    – Submitted by Diego T (3 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • In the Air (FR)
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