A.O. Scott on Ryan Bingham vs. Jerry Maguire

“Hi Jerry. This is your future calling.”

A.O. Scott has a nice piece in the NY Times that compares this year’s Up in the Air starring George Clooney to 1996’s Jerry Maguire starring Tom Cruise. In the process he does a much more elegant job of illuminating what sticks with you about Up in the Air than I was able to do in my review.

First he sketches the two films’ similarities and then he highlighting their essential differences. In the process he reveals each story to be one belong to its particular time. Maguire was made during a period of Capitalism’s fullest flower and Up in the Air during a time of insecurity and grave doubts.

“The story of Ryan Bingham, we assume, will be the tale of a man who discovers the flaws in his happiness and sets out to correct them, so that he can become a better version of the person he already is. We know, before he does, that his freedom is laced with loneliness, and that he will discover, beneath his restlessness, an urge to settle down. There will be some turbulence, but when the gravitational pull of forces of family and commitment assert themselves, surely an easy landing is in store.”

That’s the expectation, and if the film had continued on that course it would’ve been fine, but it reached for more just when you expect it won’t.

“Up in the Air does not entirely give up on that story…but the title betrays a hint of disquiet that, by the end, has grown into something more. Not an intimation of catastrophe, exactly, but a tremor that is more troubling for being less dramatic.”

“Less dramatic” yet “more troubling.” That’s the key. Up in the Air at first seems obvious but then it finally reveals itself to be smarter and more subtle than you expect. Why? Because it’s Clooney.

Watching him, you can’t help but believe Ryan will win in the end, that the singular happiness he has postponed and pursued his whole life will catch up with him in the end. Surely, if anyone can have it all, it’s this guy. Come on, he’s George Clooney!

But what if he can’t?

In the end I think this sense of doubt is what makes Up in the Air as good as it is. Maguire was an exceptionally well-made feel-gooder calculated to send you out of the theater believing that all was right in the world or that it could be. Up in the Air leaves you wondering if we haven’t had it wrong the whole time.

Filed under: Analysis
Tags: A.O. Scott, George Clooney, Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise, Up in the Air