December 25, 2009 in Features

Reitman’s latest on downsizing proves first class

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Director Jason Reitman, above, is drawing mostly rave reviews for “Up in the Air,” starring George Clooney, left. Paramount
(Full-size photo)

“I’m exhausted,” groaned Jason Reitman, which was a shame but ironic.

Near the end of a national tour in support of his latest film, “Up in the Air” – starring George Clooney as a tireless road warrior – the 30-year-old director was suffering serious jet lag and interview burnout.

“I feel like an actor who’s been doing the same scene for a month,” he said.

Reitman’s follow-up to “Juno” has been on many critics’ Academy Award shortlist since its Toronto Film Festival debut in September.

A comedic drama about corporate ax-man Clooney’s efforts to build personal connections, it melds heart, humor and stinging social insights.

Reitman began work on the film in 2002, but set it aside to work on “Juno.” After that teen comedy, he returned to the downsizing story as the economy went into free fall.

“Honestly, it was just simply heartbreaking” seeing the economic collapse that echoed the themes of his story, he said.

Part of the filming was done in St. Louis and Detroit, cities hit hard in the recession. The downturn inspired Reitman to include stories from real layoff victims in place of scripted scenes of actors getting fired.

“We interviewed over 60 people,” he said. “We’d ask them what it was like to lose their jobs and how it affected their lives.”

When they relived the pain of their job loss on camera, he said, “that was devastating and moving.”

Reitman expected that lowered income would be the hardest part of unemployment, but found that loss of purpose was the chief complaint.

“That’s a more terrifying question, being in the middle of your life and not knowing what the purpose of your life is anymore,” he said.

Although he was born in Beverly Hills, Reitman had his own identity crisis in his 20s.

His father, producer/director Ivan Reitman, made such successful comedies as “Stripes,” “Ghostbusters” and “Kindergarten Cop.” His mother, Genevieve Robert, acted in the European grindhouse classics “Devil’s Island Lovers” and “Dracula vs. Dr. Frankenstein.”

He’d been a child actor in a half-dozen of his father’s movies. It was almost a foregone conclusion that Reitman would have a career in the film industry.

That’s why he wanted to be a doctor.

“I feel like my name weighs about 1,000 pounds,” Reitman said. “I thought if I was a director I’d be compared to my father my entire life, and more than likely fail very publicly. There’s too many children of famous filmmakers who are horrible directors.”

Hungry to establish his own name, he aimed for medical school until his father persuaded him to step behind the camera and give it a try. When his student films began winning accolades, Reitman began to see that he could build a career on his own merits.

He earned an Oscar nomination for best director for “Juno,” losing to the Coen brothers for “No Country for Old Men.”

Reitman’s films center on characters who are not especially audience-friendly: a cynical tobacco lobbyist (“Thank You for Smoking”), a sharp-tongued pregnant teenager and now a man whose livelihood is firing longtime employees.

“I like the tricky stuff,” he said. “I don’t see any point in making a movie like ‘The Insider.’ Humanize the whistleblower? Why does he need humanizing? That’s kid stuff.

“There’s a line in ‘Thank You for Smoking’ which I’ve always liked: ‘Working for the Red Cross is easy. If you want a real job, go work for Big Tobacco.’

“I’ve always kind of identified with that idea. I want the tough stuff. I find deeper meaning in it.”

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