Up in the Air (2009)

Some people say that home is where the heart it, others say it's where you hang your hat, others where you lay your head. For small children, home, is in the arms of a parent For adolescents, it's where they go when they have to stop having fun. For college students, home is a concept that is in constant fluctuation. Home is where one belongs, wherever that is.  For Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), the main character in Jason Reitman's “Up in the Air,” home is almost exclusively 39,000 feet above the ground. That is where he feels he belongs. That's where he feels at home.

Ryan is incredibly comfortable in his life. That says a lot as he works for a company that travels across the country firing people for other companies. He literally makes a living on taking people's livings away from them. He is asked more than once how he lives with himself. I think a lot of it is due to the fact that he never really has much time to think about it, he's always moving, always going to the next place, the next airport, the next downsizing company. That is, until two different women come into his life. One comes out of his life in the air, and one threatens to destroy it. Enter Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) and Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick). Alex is the perfect match for Ryan. One scene shows them both emptying their various frequent flyer cards and valued membership cards and compare them. They're both impressed with each other and this leads itself into the bedroom. They both make it clear that they're not looking for anything serious, like the food and drinks on a plane these rendevous are meant to be single serving, no commitment.

Natalie seeks to destroy Ryan's lifestyle. Not directly. Natalie is a recent graduate who enters the company
with new ideas. She wants to make the whole job termination experience virtual. Instead of sending agents around the world, the company would be centered in one building and have their agents fire people over computers. This would ground Ryan indefinitely. So, the boss (Jason Bateman) decides to send Natalie with Ryan to learn the ins and outs of firing people. Ryan does not respect Natalie, of course, because Natalie has never technically fired anybody. She doesn't know what it's like to effectively ruin someones life. She simply is seeking to make the process even that much more impersonal.

Ryan brings Alex to his sister's wedding where he is more a regular guest than a brother of the bride. We see him here beginning to fall for Alex and we also see him slowly begin to realize that home is where you find the people you love. The problem is, he doesn't really have anybody like that, maybe Alex can be that for him. She can't. Once he realizes that, he quickly understands that a life lived with no home, is not really a life, it's the postponement of life. He begins to live.  We see transformation in Natalie as well. Throughout the movie she is trying to prove to everybody and herself that she can change the way things are done for the better. What she doesn't understand and what she eventually realizes is that firing people is hard. It might make it easier for the people doing the firing if it's done over webcam, but there is a lot of pain and anguish that goes into losing a job. Once she realizes that that's what she's making a living in, she quickly exits. She was not quite comfortable with who she was yet, and if you're not comfortable with who you are, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell someone else that they are no longer needed.

There is a LOT going on in “Up in the Air.” A lot can be said, a lot can be written. I began writing about this movie about a year ago, and it was difficult then, just as difficult now. I still do NOT have a good grasp on this movie. All I am sure of is that was very good. The acting was superb, the writing was excellent it was just an all around great movie. I feel as though this movie needs to not be summarized or quickly analyzed, it needs to be discussed, and often and for a while. I don't think I'll ever be satisfied with anything I write for this movie so I'm giving you what I got. “Up in the Air”- Good movie.

8/10