Embedded below is a deleted scene from the Blu-Ray/DVD of Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, released in the US on March 9th.
The deleted scene is a montage that focuses on the period in the film when Ryan (George Clooney) is grounded in Omaha following the implementation of Natalie’s (Anna Kendrick) new system which facilitates the firing of people via software similar to Skype.
*SPOILER WARNING* If you’ve not yet seen Up in the Air I recommend you stop reading and don’t watch the clip.
Montages can be somewhat cheesy and cliched (as wonderfully parodied in Team America World Police (See the first clip below) and this one is a good example of when a montage doesn’t work. The tone seems all over the place and not in keeping with the film. One of the elements of Reitman’s film that I really liked was it’s sincerity and despite the content often being being sentimental it did not feel mawkish.
This deleted scene would have had an incredibly negative impact on the tone of the film and the glimpses of Ryan buying and furnishing a flat seem clumsy and expositional. When DVDs first came out I rushed to watch the deleted scenes as I thought they would be glimpses at scenes that should have been included, but quickly I realised that there was generally a good reason they weren’t.
This is a scene that I am happy was left on the cutting room floor but it is interesting to see, even just to highlight where a good choice was made in the making of the film.
Do you agree that it should have been left out and are there any deleted scenes you’ve seen on DVD extras that you’ve been glad were left out of the finished film?
Trailer Addict had the clip, and the Blu-Ray artwork courtesy of Collider.com
