taking away what little dignity is left from a fairly undignified job. He is instructed to show her the ropes; to take her on his final travels before the new system is set in place. Ryan's farewell tour will include his sister's wedding and a couple of rendezvous' with his travelling soul mate Alex ( Vera Farmiga ). We should despise Ryan Bingham. He seems to derive pleasure from taking people's livelihood away. However, as the film progresses, we see that the joy actually comes from Bingham's short, but undeniably intimate relationship with each of these people. Not unlike the portion-controlled foods and toiletries he enjoys receiving every time he boards a plane or checks into a hotel, he enjoys these portion-controlled relationships. He constantly raves about the joy of solitude and how moving alone is the only way to live. When he loses those nearly intangible connections, he truly is lost. This is about as devastating as commentaries on human relationships get. Up in the Air is the third film of Reitman's career. The young director set the bar ridiculously high with his first two movies, Thank You For Smoking and Juno . As if there were any possible room for improvement, his latest film surpasses his past achievements (yes, even the feat of making Diablo Cody's hyper-dialogue sound normal seems unimpressive by comparison). Reitman teamed up with Sheldon Turner to adapt Walter Kirn's wry and detached novel of the same name for the big screen (somewhat loosely I