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Up in the Air 12/30/2009
 

    UP IN THE AIR
   √ Bob Certified

   George Clooney is so perfect as a modern “hired gun”—he’s brought in by corporations around the country to fire employees to spare the corporation’s own bosses from the chore—that it makes it easy at times to look past director Jason Reitman’s marvelous handling of the actor and the movie’s theme. Clooney is so distanced from the concept of family and friends that he’s the opposite of the normal traveler who can’t wait to get home. Clooney dreads the 40 or so days when he’s not traveling somewhere. Reitman and Clooney give us a look at loneliness versus community that is witty, sophisticated, thoughtful and deeply poignant. A mini-masterpiece that belongs with “Hurt Locker” at the top of any list of best films of 2009.

 
 
   BROKEN EMBRACES
   Undernourished
   Penelope Cruz is more gorgeous than ever, but is that really enough reason to see Pedro Almodovar’s latest film? The story is as slippery as an eel, but a lot of that misdirection and redirection is wasted on a very familiar device: the movie within the movie. The director is in love with his actress whose film is financed by the actress’s lover. Where does it end? Nothing really matters, the message seems to be, as long as the film gets made. Two problems: the telling is too slow and, in for much of the way, a bit too obvious. It’s all diverting, but a little empty.

   CRAZY HEART
   You gotta see it. 
   Saying you gotta see it is different from saying this is a great film, which it is not—by a long shot. The tale of the faded country music singer traveling the back roads circuit of bowling alleys and seedy motels has been told better, but no one has matched Jeff Bridges’ brilliant performance as the singer. He captures every nuance of the bruised ego, immense vulnerability and still lingering dreams of the country music star who has run out of hits and luck, and he captures them so well that you wish he had a little bit more material to work with. But Bridges—along with the music by T Bone Burnett and others—are what you “gotta” see. “Crazy Heart.” It isn’t just the performance of the year; it’s one of the performances of the decade.
 
 
   EVERYBODY’S FINE
   Not this moviegoer

 The easiest way to think of this film is that it’s Robert DeNiro’s version of Jack Nicholson’s “About Schmidt” and the problem is nothing here works as well as “About Schmidt.” DeNiro has his best role in ages, but he has almost no help in making you care about his role as a widower trying to reconnect with his adult sons and daughters. Pass.

 



   INVICTUS
   Too conventional

   This latest from Clint Eastwood reminds me of the old historical films from the 1940s and 1950s…the kind where all the energy was put in simply telling a story, assuming that it alone was enough. The history lesson here touches a lot of bases, including leadership, courage and forgiveness—both on the rugby field and in the halls of government. Morgan Freeman is convincing as Nelson Mandela, the South African statesman, and Matt Damon does all he can with a cardboard role, but there was simply too little drama or tension to keep me in the theater for more than the first of the two hours.