Like my Income to Debt ratio..."Up in the Air" is a High Priority

Rating: 8/10 (3 March 2010)

"Up in the Air"
Ryan Bingham is a 40 something with not a thing to tie him down, except his job and the travel that comes with it that he loves sooo much. It's a pretty cool job, when companies need to downsize a workforce, they hire Bingham's company led by Owner Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman) to come in and fire people.
Clooney's Bingham has the whole traveling thing down to a fine art- even the line to get into for the least amount of wait time( follow the Asians). Accumulating mass amounts of frequent flier miles( he's trying to get to 10mil, only 6 other people have done it) reward points and women that are into that type~ Namely, Alex (Vera Farmiga, loved her in the Departed). Who is also a frequent flier type. After a extensive comparison of their rewards cards and a few cocktails later, Alex finds herself burrito'd in the couch cushion. They seem quite content with their new relationship, only to part ways until the flight patterns cross again.
Bingham is called back to the home office in Omaha for a new announcement of budget cuts. The new direction of the company led by Natalie (Anna Kendrick) to fire people via live web cam chat. Cutting travel expenses for the company by 85%. Ryan, not happy about his oh so precious traveling lifestyle being slammed to a screeching halt professes to Craig(Bateman) that the new plan could never work due to the personality of the job nature. He is accorded a final hurah to show Natalie how it was meant to be done, thing is, Natalie has to go along for the ride.
Along their journey Bingham's life that should have been comes in to the picture, via his sister Kara Bingham ( Amy Morton) and the ever continuing drama that is Alex.
The Direction that is this movie captained by Jason Reitman is magnificent, he constructs the onion that is Ryan Bingham, then starts to masterfully uncover the layers of love, family, humanity and potential change that make Clooney's Bingham is a character that you really begin to feel for. Reitman's work is near flawless. Clooney, Harmiga and Kendrick are talent incarnate.
I honestly didn't want to see this film, my wife asked me to take her and I can truly say that I loved it. I expected droll and gray and got exactly that and much more.
BruceVain