I'm From Here:A Mid-life Passage

Rating: 10/10 (9 April 2014)

"I'm from here." When I heard Ryan said this line in the later of the movie, I recognize that this is a similar story just like Lord Of War or Breaking Bad, where toward the end of each story, the protagonist will always say something like "I just good at it", or "I just like it", meaning: acceptance of himself, no more fancy theories.
Just like those guys who are suffering from a life problem, Ryan tried as well to solve his own, but in a wrong way. He's really professional at work, however, he thought he's quite different than other ordinary people. He gave himself an air millage target, he developed a theory to motivate himself and gave speeches, which actually and ironically, is the source of his inner conflict, e.g., no marriage, no children, etc, etc. This inner conflict let him act twisted. He cannot accept firing people through internet, he felt funny when nephew wanted him to take photographs without being there herself, he thought being grounded is suffering.
There are three stories there. (1) nephew's wedding (2) meet with Alex (3) The "B story" with Natalie. Through all these stories, Ryan found that people actually do care about the solid face to face relationship. Natalie felt sad when her boyfriend broken up with her via text message. Ryan's boss felt offended when Natalie quit her job by text message. Alex did what she meant (honestly, sad to say that), not like Ryan, he himself didn't mean what he said at first place in this relationship ...
Finally, Ryan let go his fancy theory of back-package, gave up some of his millage, he understood that this is the life style he wanted. He choose to accept who he is. He understood he will cherish face to face solid personal connection, no matter if it's a failure (Alex), or even a disaster (employee committed suicide). He wrote a recommendation letter for Natalie in the "old fashion" way. He solved his inner conflict, he reaches the airport and will continue his life.
The theme of this film is a little bit subtle, and I admit that I was expecting some other type of story when even reach the mid point of the movie. From the start, I thought it would be a story something like "a guy who lives on firing other people got fired himself", (you know, like other popular themes such as "save a sinking soul on a sinking ship" Titanic, or, "to manipulate someone else's dream when his own dream is in a mess" Inception, or, "there's no magic in a magic" The Prestige....). If the theme goes that way, it will be a totally different story. I guess some people may be misguided by these popular themes and therefore they may have missed a great movie.
This is a thoughtful movie. The characters are well built. Dialogues are great. It's a movie worth viewed twice or more. I recommend it.