Good but profoundly sad story of a man who just travels

Rating: 6/10 (10 January 2010)

(SPOILERS- I talk in a roundabout way about the ending)
The co-front runner (with Hurt Locker) for the Best Picture Oscar this year concerns a man who flies around the country and fires people for a living. He meets and begins a relationship with a woman who also flies the country. Meanwhile his job maybe changing as a young hot shot has come up with a way to fire people via video conferencing.
I found this to be a good but not really great film. I know it wasn't quite what I expected going in. Certainly I didn't expect to find the film so incredibly sad. George Clooney's character is a very sad person. He's incredibly happy that he lives out of suitcases and simply travels from place to place., or so he thinks. And its kind of heart warming to see how he comes around but that makes the ending so much more sad. As the film ended I kind of wanted to step into traffic.
I'm kind of at a loss to to figure out why the film ends as it does, what is the point? What is the film trying to say? That we shouldn't try to move out of out cocoons? That perhaps we are all better off just traveling? Maybe that we should go with our first instincts and never know if there is anything better out there? I'm not sure. Sure Clooney is a bit of a jerk at the start but its also a defense. As the film goes on and Clooney's defenses are stripped away he finds himself not really better off, but more empty and much more aware of what he is missing. Its like the world showed him everything he could have and then took it all away. It depressed me. Sure life is cruel but even karmicly Clooney doesn't deserve what he gets.
I know the fine line between comedy and tragedy.
As I said I'm at a loss to explain it and I think director Jason Reitman is too.
Its a good film, its just not a great one.