Faith in Film 3, Up In The Air

In 2009, Jason Reitman delivered his finest film with "Up In The Air." It earned six Academy Award nominations, but didn't win a single award. Still, I thought it was the best film of the year, even better than the more heralded films "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker." I still do.

The film presented two interesting aspects. First, Reitman perfectly captured the economic climate of our country during this period of unrest and depression. In fact, he sought to be as authentic as possible. In both St. Louis and Detroit, where the movie was filmed, he advertised for recently terminated employees to come out and participate in a documentary. The best representatives of that effort actually appear in the film. In that way, I think it is important in that it captures the mood and reality of this time in America.

But the other thing that I like about the film, and the more important theme for our purposes, is what the movie says about connections to people and things, but mostly people. The central character, Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), has developed a way of life that prevents him from getting attached. He's not attached to things or people.

In fact, the crux of his argument is captured in a motivational speech he gives called the empty backpack. In the film, we get the whole argument in two pieces. First he talks about being free of material possessions. In that sense, he represents a somewhat similar approach to what we get in the Bible, though for vastly different reasons. But that line of thinking continues on to the way he relates to people.

"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."

That, you'd have to agree, is a sad perspective. He isn't just talking about romantic relationships, though he divests himself of that too, he's talking about all interpersonal relationships of substance. This, of course, stands in stark contrast to what the Bible talks about when considering the value of developing meaningful relationships with others. The Bible uplifts that as a necessary part of our journey in this world.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up." We all fall down. At some point in our lives we all need a shoulder to lean on, someone to confide in, and someone to share our joys and sorrows with. We need it, we crave it, and that is the way God created us. To deny that is to deny a key piece of who we are. Pity anyone who falls prey to that logic.