The game was over, the Eagles had lost and we had comforted Michael. The night was still young! (At least on the west coast.)
So Saturday night (Jan 9th) Gayla and I went on a date and we saw the movie Up In the Air. It was incredible!
Actually the first thing we did on our date was go to the Sunnyside McMenamins.
Each McMenamins I have been to so far, has something on their menu that the other Mcmenamins locations do not have.
At the Sunnyside location they have these great fried pita chips that are delicious! We got those with a hummus plate and spent some time talking and hanging out.
Then it was on to the movie. Or is it off to the movie?
If you have not seen Up in the Air yet I highly recommend it!
the website for this movie is http://www.theupintheairmovie.com
This movie is directed by Jason Reitman who directed Juno and Thank You For not Smoking -another movie I really enjoyed. ( I have not seen Juno)
To me Up In the Air is a movie about “Home” and “Family”. All told from the perspective of Ryan Bingham who struggles with both.
George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham and he does a wonderful job. His character fires people for a living and in spite of that Ryan is still charming and likable.
In the movie Ryan has to mentor Natalie and he falls in love with Alex. Watching his interactions with both characters and seeing how those interactions expand upon the themes of “home” and “family” is very enjoyable.
Alex is skillfully played by Vera Farmiga and I found the character she played to be sexy and lovely at the same time.
Up In the Air has a love story that for me was portrayed in a very real way.
During the previews we saw a preview for the new Kristen Bell movie When In Rome. Even just looking at a short preview I am fairly certain the love story in that movie will be very different from the love story in Up In the Air.
(Please know the the love story in Up In the Air does have a twist that I figured out before it was revealed.)
Most love stories I see in movies seem to be about attraction (often shallow attraction) and infatuation.
To me the love story in Up In the Air was about genuine affection and passion.
Given the way he struggled with “home” and “family” Ryan falling for Alex was an amazing thing to watch.
The main character does work full time firing people and you see many short clips of people responding to being told that they have just been let go. What I did not know when I saw the movie was that many of those people were “real” people from Detroit and St Louis who had just been fired. No wonder those scenes seemed so authentic and heartbreaking!
Go see this movie it will touch your heart and make you think!
Then get the Soundtrack!
Once you have seen the movie go to i tunes and get the soundtrack! It will haunt you. You will remember what scene each song was in.
The story of the song “Up In the Air” track #12 (it plays at the end of the movie) is really something.
Kevin Renick performs this song and he wrote it.
Kevin was laid off in the fall of 2008 from his job working as a proofreader at an ad agency. He decided to try to make a go of it as a musician.
In Febuary 2009 Kevin met Jason Rietman ( the director of the movie Up In the Air) at a college lecture. Kevin handed Jason a cassette tape (yes -I “said” cassette tape!) with a song called “Up In the Air” on it and he told Jason that maybe he could use this song in his forthcoming movie.
Kevin had simply hit “record” on a tape player and played his guitar and sang into the tape player and took that tape with him to the lecture to give to Jason.
Jason had to find a tape player to even listen to the song. The song was perfect and what is in the movie and on the soundtrack is the very recording that Kevin had handed to Jason. Amazing!
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