How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knickknacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Now I want you to fill it with people. Start with casual acquaintances, friends of friends, folks around the office... and then you move into the people you trust with your most intimate secrets. Your brothers, your sisters, your children, your parents and finally your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend. You get them into that backpack, feel the weight of that bag. Make no mistake your relationships are the heaviest components in your life. All those negotiations and arguments and secrets, the compromises. The slower we move the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living. Some animals were meant to carry each other to live symbiotically over a lifetime. Star crossed lovers, monogamous swans. We are not swans. We are sharks.
I saw this film in the theater, but left a half an hour into it. I heard nothing but good things, but it started off so slow and sad that I found refuge in another, funnier movie. I was wrong. Beginning anew, I re watched Up and found it to be a moving tale about human beings and the need for connections. Our anti-hero, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is indeed a shark. He is on the road for the better part of the year and his job is to fire people. He's smooth and cutting and is good at what he does. Suddenly, the company shifts and it seems as though he'll be taken off the road and will be made to settle; in one place. He meets a kindred spirit in his travels Alex Goran (Vera Farminga) who also collects frequent flyer miles like they were stamps and seems to have the same detached carefree ideas about life. As Bingham's world shifts, he tilts alongside it and soon sees the value and even importance of having people in one's life, not as a weight, but as a connection. George Clooney was made to play this role. He's funny, dramatic and welcoming all at the same time. His character grows miles in this film and Clooney pulls off the transformation seamlessly. Natalie Keener as Anna Kendrick made for an interesting and complex sidekick for Clooney, very enjoyable. Farminga is not my favorite actress but her character suits her well and she does a fine job. Lots of different levels, lots of different meanings which makes for lots of a fine film.
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