The complexity of life

Rating: 7/10 (8 March 2010)

Career vs. Family, or Freedom vs. Bonding. These dichotomies has been very popular so long as a theme of films, novels and so on.
Why are they so popular? A cynicism about successful people, or a consolation for them (because sacrifice sometimes looks beautiful)?
Unfortunately (or fortunately) I've been off the track of climbing a successful career ladder, my point of view has a bit distance from the characters in the film. I feel I want to be a Ryan unconsciously, but I cannot. Therefore, I can easily understand this film as a kind of cynicism.
What I felt mainly, however, is the complexity of human life, and humans themselves. Any lifestyle can be justified by some logic, but there is always lack of something, any choice is trade-off. The dichotomies mentioned above might be a good way to show the complexity and suggest the possibility of embracing both of them, that might be why they are very popular theme in the modern society.
http://creativatorblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/up-in-air.html