TOP 100 ACTOR SITES
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| Ivanova and Basshunter share kiss 'Celebrity Big Brother' contestants Katia Ivanova and Basshunter shared a kiss under the duvet as they spent another night in bed together. breakingnews.ie |
'Dragon's Den' star to present show 'Dragon's Den' star Theo Paphitis has announced "I'm in" as the presenter of new BBC show 'The Buying Game'. breakingnews.ie |
Up in the Air castigates romance, not capitalism George Clooney isn't anatomising alienation in Jason Reitman's film; he's reinventing the romcomWith Up in the Air, Jason Reitman has certainly set people thinking. Many seem to have seen his striking film as a post-recessionary lament for humanity's estrangement from an environment denatured by the ideology of business. Nonetheless, this element is essentially the backcloth to a more familiar big-screen fable. The predicament that's ensnared George Clooney's Ryan can't really be blamed wholly on the excesses of late capitalism. Like so many Hollywood heroes before him, he's an alpha male who has allowed mistaken fancies to divert him from the proper path to heterosexual partnership. Re-education awaits him in the form of witty but transformative interplay with a gorgeous paramour. Make no mistake, this is a romcom. But it's not the kind of romcom that we've all come to love or despise. This is the romcom reinvented at last for a more realistic age. The film's genuinely shocking plot makes it abundantly clear that something's changed. Ryan may indeed be forced to appreciate that wayward singledom is wrong, and committed coupledom correct. Yet the reason why this proves to be the case rips up the romcom rule book. Even the most would-be innovative of recent romcoms have stayed true to the dream of romance. They've continued to insist that the greatest joy available on this earth, worth pursuing above all else, is the fusion of enamoured souls. This will envelop those fortunate enough to achieve it, they've implied, in an aura of undying bliss. Up in the Air makes no such claim. On the contrary, it remorselessly unpicks romantic love and its supposed capacity to generate and sustain happiness. It suggests that love's most apparently unambiguous manifestations can be readily faked. When the film's most enthusiastic standard bearer for romance, Ryan's young colleague Natalie, attempts to articulate its blessings, her efforts fall hopelessly flat. Then she gets dumped by text message. The only happy pairing featured requires the persistent adultery of one of the participants to keep itself afloat. Ryan's sisters are keen family gals, but one of them is separating from her husband. The other is eager to get married, but the night before her wedding day, her intended gets cold feet. He tells Ryan he's been thinking about what he'll be letting himself in for. On reflection, he just can't see the point of it all. Neither can Ryan. Just one thing, he suggests, might make the burdens of coupledom worth shouldering: togetherness provides a hedge against the loneliness that the modern world will inflict on those rash enough to rely only on their own resources. The reluctant groom accepts this, but still looks understandably unenthused about his impending fate. The film's picture of contemporary life, as bleakly devoid of emotional gratification away from the comforts of the hearth, is there to support Ryan's dispiriting argument, rather than to provide a Marxist critique of capitalism's excesses. In pursuit of this purpose, however, Reitman does feel obliged to present interactions that might once have involved a sincere smile or cheery word as having been ruthlessly automated. At the same time, he shows the workplace as having been stripped of its social dimension by the heartless pursuit of profit. You can't have a genuine relationship with your colleagues since they may have to shaft you at any point, or you them. This fits with the mood of the times, but it's not wholly convincing, since capitalism's triumph has proved a bit more limited than Reitman needs it to be. In real life, plenty of workmates still manage to form bonds, in spite of bean-counting bosses. To protect its stance, the film feels obliged to exclude any reference to what has become connubiality's main screen rival as a source of human warmth. None of the characters is allowed any friends. The likes of Sex and the City, buddy and bromance movies and TV shows like Friends have shown people who eschew domestic solace, finding no-strings-attached affection in the company of their peers. Poor Ryan isn't permitted one supportive chum, though even Alfie was provided with Nat.  Over and over again, the film points out that those who seek fulfilment in work can find themselves unceremoniously dumped by ungrateful employers. Yet the divorce rate suggests that cinemagoers will be at least as likely to be thanklessly discarded by their spouses as by their bosses. Air travel, the film's eponymous motif, is paraded as a fearsome metaphor for what awaits life's incautiously rootless loners. Adrift in capitalism's depersonalised airspace, they can look forward only to pointless peregrination, recycled oxygen, phoney solicitude and lots of Air Miles.  Nonetheless, life in what Natalie dubs "a cocoon of self-banishment" takes on a certain appeal, in spite of the film's efforts to decry it. You don't, as Ryan puts it, "get welcomed home by jumping dogs and squealing kids", like those more prudential couples beneath the clouds. You do, however, retain your autonomy and avoid a lot of trouble and disappointment. This is a romcom that acknowledges there's no hey-presto escape from the human predicament. Its message isn't cheering, but unlike so many of its predecessors, it may help dispel some of the damaging delusions that so many of its predecessors have fostered.George ClooneyRomanceComedyJason ReitmanDavid Coxguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Hot Chip hint at Glasto slot Hot Chip have hinted they will be playing Glastonbury Festival. breakingnews.ie |
TV judges to dish up juicy results MY KITCHEN Rules judge Pete Evans didn't cover himself in glory when he was on MasterChef. news.com.au |