(Spoilers ahead)
There's not a lot to write about, TV-wise, this week, so why not look to the movies? We'll be back in TV mode next week.
This is a very brief review, so if you want more detailed thoughts on the writing, acting, and directing (all of which were great, by the way) look here.
I'll just say that this one deserves all the praise it has gotten. Up in the Air marks two great movies for George Clooney in one year (the other being Fantastic Mr. Fox), and would make a nice double feature with another Clooney movie, Michael Clayton.
They're both stories of men who are very good at their jobs, to the point that it's cost them their souls.
And although no one blows up Clooney's car in Up in the Air, and although it's filled with a lot of nice, zippy one-liners and is often quite sweet and funny, it is -- in its own way -- just as dark.
Because even though Clooney's Ryan Bingham -- whose job it is to fire people for companies that don't want to do it themselves -- grows and changes and learns over the course of Up in the Air, the movie never really rewards him for this growth. A lesser film might allow him to get the girl and sail off into the sunset. Here, the only victories Bingham achieves are kind of hollow, and the final shot of this lovely little film is a sky filled with fluffy, impenetrable clouds.
Tom Coombe
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