Fuming about this movie for the second day in a row!!

Rating: 3/10 (14 March 2010)

The only reason I registered on IMDb is so that I can fume about this movie. My girlfriend and I (together for a reason it appears) both hated Up In The Air, not even so much for its trite content, but for the fact that we LOVED the first half of it, and were so rudely let down by the second half of it.
The premise was so great - here is a guy, living a free life - no needless commitments, compromises, fights, promises, negotiations, relationship baggage, financial obligations, or everyday mundane existence of the 8 to 5. I loved the free backpack existence idea. This is something so many people desire - to "just get away from it all," haven't we all heard or said that at some point in our lives? Here we were expecting to see how it could be done and live vicariously through George Clooney's character, Ryan Bingham. The carefree hook-ups in hotel rooms, the travel, the unattached existence, the individuality of it all was intoxicating!
Then came the conflict - Ryan Bingham was to be "grounded," and his existence as he knew it - his carefully structured life in the air - would come to an end. What will be the resolution? What will happen? Interesting all the way up until now.
After this moment the movie just took a dive for me. Really, Bingham is to start having second thoughts now? Really, is the plain married, "tied down to earth" life that millions of Americans live out every day SO appealing to the audiences? What's the great artistic innovation here? And, what's up with Vera's character? How laughable that on one hand, there is this entire sappy thread in the movie that tries to show that it is good to have a family, to have someone that you can wake up next to every day, while Vera's character is cheating on her husband with Bingham? Isn't that the ultimate joke?
It seems the plot did not leave any room for the "in between" crowd - it was a battle between always up in the air, or fully grounded. There are thousands of people who enjoy both a committed relationship and the high life of business travel. According to the movie, there was no place for those people? Why couldn't Ryan and Alex BE in a relationship, and yet enjoy the life in the air? Why couldn't the story support that premise?
The end result was a sappy rom-com, which had a great premise, and gave hope that we could get away for at least the duration of the movie and dream about the freedom that so many of us desire. Yet, it left me disgusted with how given such an interesting beginning, the plot completely disintegrated into yet another Hollywood sap with contradictory conclusions and scattered, unoriginal ideas about life.
Ugh.