An excellent film with very true to life characters

Rating: 9/10 (6 February 2010)

Up in the Air has been one of the most acclaimed movies of the past year and I'm going to go with the critics and say that this is a terrific movie. George Clooney is outstanding as Ryan Bingham, a man whose job is to fire people. Because his job involves a lot of travel he has almost no personal attachments and that's just the way he likes it. Unfortunately for him, his world is about to be shaken up by changes in his working life as well as the arrival into his life of two very different women: a love interest named Alex (played by Vera Farminigia) as well as a younger colleague/protégé named Natalie (played by Anna Kendrick). Eventually, Ryan is forced to question his priorities and what he truly wants out of life.
This is not a movie filled with heavy duty action scenes or incredibly dramatic events. Rather, it's a movie based on very realistic characters, the choices they make, how they deal with setbacks and how they decide what's important to them. The final answers for these questions aren't cut and dry, which, to me, makes it very true to life. I haven't seen all of the Best Picture nominated movies yet, but of the ones I've seen, this would get my pick.