Enjoyable, funny movie. Definitely worth a watch.

Rating: 7/10 (3 February 2010)

The movie moves at a slow pace, but still manages to keep the viewer's attention. I personally enjoyed the movie a lot because I thought it managed to convey so many feelings, emotions and life's lessons without being preachy.The movie's protagonist, Mr. Ryan Bingham, lives out of a suitcase as his job requires him to travel all across America firing people as part of the company's corporate downsizing contracts. He is also a motivational speaker, helping people to deal with their emotional stress and encouraging them to not be bogged down by the excess baggage that life has to offer - namely relationships. He loves his life and his job which requires him to constantly travel leaving him little time for family or relationships. Not that he's complaining because he's perfectly happy moving from city to city and living in hotels. However, during the course of the movie, the people he meets and the incidents he encounters make him realize that he might have been wrong all these years. And just maybe, he doesn't have life all figured out like he thought he did. He hooks up with a like-minded fellow traveler - or so he thinks, and what starts off as a casual relationship turns into much more for him. By the end of the movie, you have him cross borders just to show up at her doorstep, only to find out that she's happily settled and he was only an escape to her everyday life. She calls him her "parenthesis". Even though you really don't expect a happily-ever-after for them, your heart goes out to Ryan Bingham at that moment. But such is life, you realize the most important things only when its too late. Natalie Keener is the other person who plays an important part of Ryan's realization process. She's a young lady, fresh out of Cornell, a top student, ambitious, a perfectionist and the works. Her new ideas to improve cost-cutting of the company might put an end to Ryan's business trips altogether, which Ryan doesn't take too kindly to. Natalie is sent with Ryan on his trips where he shows her the ropes of the business of firing people. Natalie might appear to be a career-oriented woman who knows exactly what she wants to accomplish, however she reveals her weaker, human side when she tells Ryan that she gave up better job offers to follow her boyfriend, only to be dumped by him through a text message. Natalie isn't blunt. She makes it clear that she's appalled by his way of life and tries to change his views on the same. The movie has some clean and subtle humour (which is quite rare these days) and that makes it even more likable. The performances of George Clooney and Anna Kendrick who play Ryan Bingham and Natalie Keener respectively are particularly noteworthy. In all, the whole cast and crew has done a superb job in making a movie that everyone can relate it on some level.