Gifted Typist

By scanning the reviews, I knew the flick Up would be good, but I must say it came as a surprise when the story of this grieving old man and his plumb eight-year old sidekick found its way into the heart of this crusty typist.

Let’s just say tissues were needed in the same way that tissues are needed whenever I open Robert Munsch’s book Love You Forever.

I’m generally not an easy-sell with these things. I find cheap sentimentality to be lazy, tiresome and cliche. And this makes me angry, especially when I spend good money and time on it.  Up managed to move without resorting to eash schmaltz.

It opens with a sweet montage covering of the life of 78-year old Carl Fredrickson (Ed Asner). We meet him as a child, learn of his fascination with aviation and we meet his sweetheart Ellie who shares a dream to go to Paradise Falls in South America. The rest is comes as a snapshot view of their lives together.

Next time we meet Carl he is  an old man grieving the loss of his wife Ellie, the loss of his old neighbourhood and the loss of his dream to go to Paradise Falls. So much loss. That’s when Boy Scout Russell appears at the door asking if he can provide an old person assistance so he can earn his “help an old person badge.”

Though a series events, the pair set out on an adventure to Paradise Falls, travelling  in the man’s house which is lifted into flight by thousands of helium-filled balloons. Picture perfect.

It’s a whimsical tale, rendered in a colourful, artistic animation that puts you in the mind of a circus or a fair (back in the days when they weren’t full of slimeballs.)  There’s adventure, suspense and villainy (voiced exquisitely by Christopher Plummer). There’s goofy humour in the gorky rare bird called Kevin and the dumb dog who appear along the way and help them though their adventures. All of this would be enjoyable on its own.

But it was the bitter-sweet observations on the old man’s compromises that moved me, the stinging regret and sorrow that he never pursued the dream to go to Paradise Falls. They saved money for the trip but something always got in the way: the car, house repairs, life.

How many of us can relate to that?

The old man confronts his regrets each time he opens the My Adventures scrapbook kept by his wife. But he can never turn the page and look at the chapter entitled “Stuff I’m going to do”. Carl can’t face his wife’s regret and lost dreams.

The moment of redemption occurs for Carl when he finally gets up the courage to turn that page. I’ll won’t spoil it here, but this moment is one of the most poignant, beautiful and tear-inducing of any moment in any animation flick, or non-animated flick, for that matter.

I could hear sniffles all around in this film and laughter, and at the end,  that rare thing in a movie cinema: applause.

I don’t often hear that.

But then I don’t often leave an animated film – or any film, for that matter – feeling so moved and satisfied by the sheer joy of the story.

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