Up In The Air

On Wednesday I went to go and see Up In The Air starring George Clooney.

The credits are slick, slightly 60's style with that extra techni-colour feel to them, predominantly of impressive pictures of the sky, and aerial pictures of the geometric American landscape.

The music is laid back but lets you know that there is a slight sense of mischief in the air at the same time; it reminded me slightly of Catch Me If You Can.

Since I've started doing my Geography degree (first year), I've been reading about the French Anthropologist Marc Augé. His work talks about this idea of 'non-places', places that could be almost anywhere in the world; airports, supermarkets, shopping malls, motorways.

This film beautifully depicts airports in a commercial, glamorous, functional and mundane way. For Clooney it is his Home. He has no roots, surrounded by people yet lonely (even though he doesn't yet know it) - as so many more of us seem to be experiencing in this inter-connected world (ironic isn't it?) He has no baggage (barely physical or emotional), and drifts from airport to airport like one of the many faceless people we pass everyday. As the film goes on, we see how this ruthless self-proclaimed shark survives, by isolating himself from real feelings.

Que a love interest.

I won't spoil the ending (it is a personal pet hate of mine for people who do that to me), but I must say that Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno) has directed another whimsical beauty that depicts the human race in another light.