It's nothing special.

Rating: 5/10 (12 June 2017)

"Up In The Air" is about "Ryan Bingham" (George Clooney) who works for a human resources consultancy firm which specialises in firing people. "Ryan Bingham" has an apartment, but is rarely ever there due to him travelling via plane constantly and living out of hotels 95% of the time. He is a likable character, and we're introduced to a few other characters who enter his life.
"Ryan" gives a good speech at the beginning of the movie about minimalism as a lifestyle choice, it's a positive speech and as a minimalist myself who does not like to own a lot of things i get where this character is coming from, but his viewpoint is subjective, a lot of people like to have lots of things and there's nothing wrong with that, however "Ryan" continues with more great points about how the mind can become emotionally cluttered if a person has unnecessary stuff.
There is not much to this film, the plot is not common which makes a change, but the movie just drags on, it's only about an hour and forty minutes, but it feels more like two and a half hours long, this cine is slow-paced most of the time. I was shocked when i read that this motion picture received critical acclaim and that it was nominated for all these Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards, good grief the film isn't THAT good.
The performances are decent, this is not a comedy movie even though it's half-labelled that, it isn't funny in the slightest, "Up In The Air" is definitely a drama and not a very good one at that. Whether it's the editing, writing or directing - it is just not interesting enough to be entertaining.
There is a shocking unexpected plot-twist which is the best part of the entire film, "Ryan" is depicted as being a little bit of a player, but we find out by the end that he is the one who is actually getting played. We find out that the lady who he is dating (and not just sleeping with, he takes her to meet his family - sisters and soon to be brother in law) is actually married with kids, during their fling she never once tells him about them (yes the relationship was rushed, but a married person should tell the potential lover of their circumstance being going into a fling) and then she has the cheek to talk down to him on the phone talking about "don't mess with me or my family!" excuse me??!! you just strung this poor man along for all this time, met his family and acted like his girlfriend, and YOU have the nerve to get angry at HIM?? she tells him that he is just an "escape" (talk about selfish) they end the conversation with her telling him "as soon as you know what you want, call me" like he's the one with the problem, it's clear that the movie is about "Ryan Bingham", but he is not to blame for every single wrong thing that goes on around him.
The ending is a bit depressing as it's strongly depicted that "Ryan" is going to go back to his travel for a living life (because he previously was thinking about settling down with the lady who he thought was 100% serious about him) and it makes him look as though he's a very lonely person. The ending is very misleading, travelling for a living doesn't make you lonely, it's your mindset, there's nothing wrong with being single and living out of hotels, and he may easily meet another lady in the future that's right for him.
"Up In The Air" is only worth watching once.