movie review: Up

Sunday my mom called me in the afternoon to let me know my aunt and uncle were coming over for dinner and that I was welcome to join. After a couple hours of debating between a relaxing evening at home that night and coming home early the next day (I would be having grilled chicken one way or another) I opted to make the drive out that night. I arrived just in time to eat, and afterward we partook in our family's particular favorite time-passing activity: Mexican Train dominoes. My dad was playing DJ with the record player my mother and I had given him a couple Christmases ago. One of his selections was the first Cars album, and I was impressed with the songs I didn't previously know. Once my aunt and uncle left, we retreated to the living room where I worked on the Sunday crossword until my mom suggested that we all watch a movie. They had recorded Up on their DVR, and I felt in a good mood for animation.

A love story kicks off the film, the made-for-each-other, do-everything-together kind that always pulls at my heart strings. The main story starts after Carl's wife Ellie passes away. When Carl accidentally assaults a construction worker he is forced to move into a retirement home. The next morning as he is about to be led away, Carl deploys a massive cloud of helium-filled balloons from the chimney and floats "their" house away (I love how even after his wife is dead Carl refers to things as still belonging to both of them.) A boy scout named Russell ends up clinging to the porch and reluctantly Carl accepts his company as Russell uses his GPS to navigate the airborne house to Paradise Falls in South America, where Ellie had envisioned their house: right on the edge of the cliff. Unfortunately they land a good distance away from the waterfall itself, and they must drag the barely aloft house through the rain forest. I don't want to give the entire plot away, but along their trek they encounter a hilarious tropical bird that had me laughing every time it squawked. The bird reminded me of a cartoon bird that my ex-girlfriend used to draw. The big heartwarming scene towards the end is when Carl gets the house into it's proper location and starts leafing through Ellie's old adventure book. When he flips to the back section of the book labeled "Stuff I'm Going To Do" which Ellie had said she would fill in when she finally got to Paradise Falls, and which he assumed would be blank, he finds that she had already completed it with photographs of their life together. At the bottom of the last page is a note thanking Carl for all of their adventures and telling him that he should go have some of his own.

In short, Up is a wonderful film. Regardless of yours or my take on the particulars of the story or specific character details, it is simply a fantastical and funny movie sure to make whichever day you watch it better.