Is Reitman's 'Up in the Air' a Scrooge clone?

I have seen Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air" five times now, and I've decided that the rom-com is an update of the Charles Dickens' holiday classic "Christmas Carol" with George Clooney cast as Scrooge. Let's consider the similarities:

Ebenezer Scrooge disdains personal relationships and builds his entire life around amassing money.

Clooney's corporate terminator Ryan Bingham disdains personal relationships and builds his entire life around amassing airline miles.

Scrooge experiences an epiphany after being visited by three ghosts.

Bingham experiences an epiphany after run-ins with three women:

1. Young hotshot Anna Kendrick, who represents Bingham's future with her program to create mass-firing procedures online.

2. Fellow traveler and kindred spirit Vera Farmiga, who gives Bingham exactly what he thinks he wants, and represents his present.

3. His older sister Kara (Amy Morton), who not only represents his past, but serves as his conscience, particularly in a scene where Kara dumps verbal napalm on the isolated way he lives.

Scrooge eventually parts with his fortune in funds to help the story's suffering innocent, Tiny Tim, achieve his dream to walk.

Bingham eventually parts with his fortune in airline miles to help the story's suffering innocent, his kid sister Melanie Lynskey, achieve her dream to travel.

Of course, there's one major difference between "Up in the Air" and "Christmas Carol," but that will be for you to discover for yourself.

Is "Up in the Air" a Scrooge story for our time? Let me know your thoughts at dgire@dailyherald.com.

'Crazy Heart' dissed?Dann: I find your list (of 2009's top 10 movies) to be quite amateurish and incomplete. There is no way that a well-researched, well-thought out list would not include "Crazy Heart" in the top three spot and you don't even have it in your top 10. A sign that you didn't even see the movie. - Gail KetchumDear Gail: My review of "Crazy Heart" ran in the Dec. 25 issue of Time out! Here's an excerpt:"Bridges, already America's greatest underappreciated actor, breathes humanity and pain into every frame of Scott Cooper's drama, polished off with Barry Markowitz's jaw-droppingly beautiful camerawork."I greatly enjoyed "Crazy Heart," but I liked it better back in 1983 when it was called "Tender Mercies" and Robert Duvall played the broken-down, middle-aged country singer. - DannSaviors, unite!Dann, first, thanks for the reviews and articles. Your writing is one of the things we always look forward to in the Herald. Like the other day, when my wife Joyce handed me the "2009 Film Highlights" and pointed out the comments on "Avatar" (being a "white savior" movie). When I first saw the "Avatar" trailer, I got this image of Graham Greene and Ken Watanabe, both in character as Kicking Bird and Katsumoto (from "Dances With Wolves" and "The Last Samurai"). They were discussing and comparing the cultures of the Plains Indians and the samurai.At one point, Kicking Bird checks his watch and says, "I wonder when that white guy's going to get here." To which Katsumoto replies, "What? You've got one, too?" - Kevin HlousekKevin: I understand why Hollywood loves white savior movies. They rake in tons of money and make white audiences feel good about being beneficent and superior to other races. What I don't get is why African Americans sit still for stories about how they owe their careers, survival, and/or self-esteem to white saviors as in "Men of Honor," "Glory" and "Ghosts of Mississippi." Or why Native Americans support movies that treat them the same condescending way in "Dances With Wolves" and "Wind Talkers."I am anxious to see how members of the Na'Vi tribe on the planet Pandora respond to James Cameron's white savior theme in "Avatar." - Dann'Hitch' in the programJoin me and film historian Raymond Benson as we discuss the movies and career of the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Clips include scenes from "Psycho," "Vertigo," "Rear Window," "Notorious," "Rebecca" and "The 39 Steps." Hey, free admission! It starts at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, 500 N. Dunton Ave., Arlington Heights. Call (847) 392-0100 or go to ahml.info.Reel Life review: 'Tear-Drop Diamond'Nothing is easier to screw up than filming a Tennessee Williams' script requiring authentic Southern drawls and imploding desires stifled under layers and layers of strained social facades and old Southern traditions.First-time director Jodie Marshall screws it up nicely, with help from miscast actors Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Evans performing an unpublished screenplay from the great playwright, who died in 1983.Both Howard and Evans play their characters way too contemporary during this 1923 Memphis anti-romance between a quietly hated, rebel debutante, Fisher Willow (Howard, replacing Lindsay Lohan) and the poor young, handsome man, Jimmy (Evans), she hires to be her escort at a series of Southern social engagements.Although the scenery and sets are stunning, Marshall apparently saw Williams' work as a flat and studied made-for-TV movie with the dramatic snap of a boiled noodle.Neither Howard nor Evans musters an iota of the passion supposedly screaming beneath placid exteriors (or plastered, as Evans appears to be most of the time).Ann-Margret's Aunt Cornelia may be the sexiest old steel magnolia in the South, but only Ellen Burstyn projects any real screen charisma as Aggie, an arthritic stroke victim who wisely wants to get out of this movie in the worst way, and does."The Loss of a Tear-Drop Diamond" opens today at Pipers Alley Theaters, Chicago. Rated PG-13 for sexual situations and drug use. 102 minutes. . 1/2'The Damned United'The After Hours Film Society presents Tom Hooper's "The Damned United," based on the true story of legendary British soccer coach Brian Clough (Michael Sheen) and his tempestuous friendship with talent scout Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall). At 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Tivoli Theater, 5031 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. $9 general admission. Rated R for language. 98 minutes.