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Last night I gave an attaboy to amctv's Bilge Ebiri for noting that Up In The Air is Intolerable Cruelty and vice versa. This morning N.Y. Film Festival honcho (and departing L.A. Weekly critic) Scott Foundas reminded that L.A. Weekly critic Robert Willonsky said the same thing on 12.2.

"Not sure I agree on how 'big' Bilge Ebiri's discovery is vis-a-vis Up in the Air and Intolerable Cruelty," Foundas writes, "but I know for sure he wasn't the first one to make it."

"There is something oddly familiar about Jason Reitman's Up in the Air," Willonsky wrote, "in which George Clooney plays a commitment-phobic business traveler with no use for meaningful human interaction. Could have sworn we've been here before. When was it? And where? Oh, yes, of course: Joel and Ethan Coen's Intolerable Cruelty, released in the fall of 2003 and forgotten by that year's first freeze.

"The screwball comedy with a dizzying topspin featured Clooney as Miles Massey, the divorce lawyer who was the love of his own life, till she came along -- Catherine Zeta-Jones, that Cinemascope devil in a red dress, who convinced the heartless Miles he had, gulp, soul. Which is why, just as he was set to deliver The Big Speech to a roomful of attorneys about how to gut unhappy couples, Miles stepped up to the microphone, tore up his prepared remarks, and decided, instead, to speak 'from the heart.' Poor bastard never knew what hit him."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 8, 2009 at 7:05 AM

comment #1

Bilge says ...

To be fair, I'm surprised more people haven't noted the similarities.

Posted by Bilge at December 8, 2009 7:29 AM

comment #2

mutinyco says ...

Who's the Tenzing Norgay in Up In the Air?...

Posted by mutinyco at December 8, 2009 7:31 AM

comment #3

MikeSchaeferSF says ...

I thought the same thing when 'Ryan Bingham' walked away from his big speech at the end of UITA. But other than that, come on... they're very different films (and may I say yet again that Cruelty is one of the Coens' most underrated movies).

Posted by MikeSchaeferSF at December 8, 2009 7:32 AM

comment #4

LauraReeling says ...

I still think it has more in common with "About Schmidt" - at the beginning of the film Bingham/Schmidt are dealt a life-altering bit of news (change in job/death of wife) that will compromise travel (air/RV). They are both remote from people and uncomfortable with real relationships. They travel around the country, go to a family wedding where they are outcasts and have an interesting relationship with an in-law to be. "Up in the Air" is even based in Omaha, where Payne set his first couple of films....

Posted by LauraReeling at December 8, 2009 7:36 AM

comment #5

Chase Kahn says ...

I hope this doesn't turn into snark ammunition a la "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" vs. "Forrest Gump" (although that comparison was more valid.) "Up in the Air" is a great film that deserves a better fate, and that Wilonsky review was a damn-near rave.

Posted by Chase Kahn at December 8, 2009 9:38 AM

comment #6

Josh Massey says ...

Full Metal Jacket is a nearly point-for-point remake of Stripes.

Posted by Josh Massey at December 8, 2009 9:46 AM

comment #7

Mr. Peel says ...

FULL METAL JACKET has more in common with STRIPES than UP IN THE AIR does with INTOLERABLE CRUELTY.

Posted by Mr. Peel at December 8, 2009 10:19 AM

comment #8

Glenn Kenny says ...

Well, like they say, it's never the tale so much as the telling.

Posted by Glenn Kenny at December 8, 2009 11:25 AM

comment #9

ynksnbigblue says ...

I guess I'm the only person here who saw "Last Chance Harvey" last year.....Harvey spends his life in a job he's about to lose living in airports, meets Emma Thompson in an airport, they start a conversation, she agrees to be his date at his daughters wedding, where someone else who is much more connected to his family than he is will be walking the bride down the aisle to his dismay....but he pulls through at the wedding, reconnecting with his familly somewhat, who love his new 'girlfriend,' but time to get back on the plane, or not...I could go on...

Posted by ynksnbigblue at December 8, 2009 11:42 AM

comment #10

jimb12345 says ...

I though up in the air was a great movie. I think george clooney does an amazing job. Such a great movie.
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comment #13