The Best Picture

This is an exciting week for me and other movie lovers. The Super Bowl of the entertainment world — The annual Academy Awards presentation — is set for Sunday night. I look forward to this day each year (despite my yearly disappointment with some of the winners). Depending on who's playing, sometimes I like Academy Award Sunday more than the Super Bowl itself.

Of course that doesn't mean things about it don't irritate me. I've resigned myself to the fact that this year's Best Picture race is going to come down to "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker." Personally, I don't really see the fascination with "Avatar." From a technical standpoint, it's groundbreaking. From a storytelling standpoint, it leaves a lot to be desired. "The Hurt Locker" is a solid, moving film. I liked it quite a bit, but it wasn't my favorite.

If the Academy Awards were up to me, "Up In the Air" would be the Best Picture winner. I think it's a funny, charming and emotional film. And "Up In the Air" has a lot to say about life and the personal connections we do or do not make.

The film centers on Ryan Bingham, who travels the country helping corporations shed staff. In other words, he fires people for a living. But it's not his job that makes Ryan interesting, it's his empty view of life. Consider the quote below:

"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. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV... the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home... I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. 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"

While I would agree we should keep moving forward in life, I don't feel like a shark. In fact, the times when I'm acting like a shark are the times I feel most alone. Ryan has made the strategic choice to cut off all contact, to live a life of solitude.

Those that have seen the film know that a few things make him reconsider that. First, a brash young co-worker (Anna Kendrick) calls him out on his life philosophy, challenging him to defend it in a way he's not really able. Next, a visit home for his sister's wedding forces him to consider what's really important in life. All of that occurs as he's breaking his own rule — forming a romantic connection with a fellow traveler (Vera Farmiga) — that makes him wonder if life isn't better with someone to share it.

"Up In the Air" doesn't have a fairy tale ending; neither does life. But it does offer some good food for thought. In our last series, Graham talked about the importance of running the race with others. Ryan Bingham wouldn't agree with that philosophy, and his quality of life was reduced as a result of it.

Ryan's life lacked fellowship and purpose. He was constantly moving, but moving for the sake of moving doesn't accomplish anything. We can never truly be fulfilled until we are running with the purpose God has given for our lives.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." — Hebrews 12:1-2.