Last night I watched Up in the Air. Before I go any further I just want to say I did not hate the movie, I did not find it offensive, and I am in no way outraged by it.
For those of you who don’t know, Up in the Air is about a man, played by George Clooney, who travels around America firing individuals from their jobs. Clooney spends nearly all year on the road up in the air, and he cherishes living a life unattached from anyone else. Of course something happens that challenges his way of life.
1. People in the theatre kept laughing every time Clooney fired someone. There were a few times it was meant to be funny, but people just kept laughing as people declared they had no will to live after loosing their job. I just didn’t find that amusing when I know there are plenty of employees who are going through downsizing.
2. In the end of the film, past employees who lost their job explain what gave them hope. All of the responses were about their husbands or their wives. Also throughout the film there is a running story line about a couple getting ready to marry. The couple getting married is extremely poor (contrasted by Clooney), but they are happy because they are in love. Ultimately, the expression of that love is represented in the marriage ceremony. So the message of the film is security, if not happiness, can best come through marriage.
The film doesn’t idealize monogamy or partnership – it is explicitly marriage.
Now I saw the movie with another gay person who thought nothing of that and was fine with the focus, but whenever I see a movie that centers on marriage I cannot help to think, “I can’t get married, this is heteronormative, I can’t get married, this is heteronormative, I can’t married, this is heteronormative” over and over again. Which eventually leads to me thinking that such a movie, because I cannot get married, is implying I can never be happy, fulfilled, or complete.
And so many movies deal with weddings or have a wedding in them: Muriel’s Wedding, The Wedding Banquet, Four Weddings and a Funeral, My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Wedding Singer, The Wedding Planner, Ever After: A Cinderella Story, The Wedding Dress, Mansoon Wedding, American Wedding, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Father of the Bride, Father of the Bride II, Sex and the City, Mama Mia, Rachel Getting Married, Bride Wars, and nearly all the Disney princess films. Certainly there are countless more, those are just off the top of my head.
Like I said, I didn’t hate it, but it left me feeling a little uneasy.
