# Up in The Air...A great movie...!!!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-in-the-air-a-great-movie/606598>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [December 18, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-in-the-air-a-great-movie/606598 "2011-12-18T00:38:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-in-the-air-a-great-movie/606598/21 "2011-12-18T05:11:29Z")

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> [@jjimm](#):
>
> You’re falsely assuming that this work of fiction has a message. Perhaps the plot plays on our expectations that more trite fiction may indeed have been redemptive, but actually there was no redemption: that’s what made it so damn good.

> [@astro](#):
>
> IMO “Up In The Air” was a great movie. It’s job is not to transmit some moral or attitudinal uplift to the unhappy lumpen. It is an object of art and exists in that context, people can take away all kinds of things, but it does not owe anyone anything.
> 
> What I took from it was that there are many ways to a happiness, and the purportedly sad and lonely life he led was really not all that sad or lonely if viewed from a different angle, and he made peace with that.
> 
> It’s not the white picket fence, but it’s not half bad either. People have to make peace with their life choices, just because that choice doesn’t include becoming a couple with another person doesn’t mean you can’t have peace or happiness in your chosen lifestyle.

And obviously your guys’ problem is that you’re just plain wrong. 😛

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-in-the-air-a-great-movie/606598/22 "2011-12-18T05:14:36Z")

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> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#):
>
> And obviously your guys’ problem is that you’re just plain wrong. 😛

Well there is that. 😉

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**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-in-the-air-a-great-movie/606598/23 "2011-12-18T07:18:57Z")

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> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> It only came out in 2009, actually. The end of 2009, actually.

Right…so a few years ago.

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**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-in-the-air-a-great-movie/606598/24 "2011-12-18T15:54:49Z")

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> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#):
>
> My complaint wasn’t about the marketing at all, it was more along the lines of this part of your statement. ALthough still disagreeing with it. Clooney’s character was the only one who believed in the “impersonal bleakness”, everyone else from his sister, his hookup, his protege, hell even his random neighbor looked down on his life and said “there’s more than just you”. The movie betrays it’s own message to basically say "yeah we teased you this whole time about the foolishness of true alone-ness…it’s actually how life is…gotcha!

I didn’t interpret it that way at all. That Clooney’s character does not get the girl doesn’t validate his philosophy.

He learns to care about other people, to put himself out there. And we know he’s taken the lesson to heart, even if he’s personally disappointed, because he writes a recommendation for Kendrick, and he gives a bunch of miles to his sister for their honeymoon. He does all of this _after_ he is rejected by Farmiga.

It’s not an unambiguously happy or sad ending. But I’m much more optimistic for him at the end of the movie than the beginning. He’s willing to take chances that he never was before. He has rejected his own bullshit sheltered philosophy and he’s looking to the future.

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**Author:** ![RetroVertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RetroVertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RetroVertigo)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-in-the-air-a-great-movie/606598/25 "2011-12-18T19:15:19Z")

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The scene where the main characters are eating in a pretty nice restaurant is actually the Cheshire Inn restaurant located in St. Louis. It was a pretty swank place back in the day, but has been closed for the last 6-7 years. I went to an auction they held there last year and the place was pretty decrepit. It was pretty funny thinking of a bunch of Hollywood stars in a place that stunk of mold and piss.

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