betty dalton The strangest thing happened to me while watching this movie: I started to like this character, who fires people for a living. Garbage men get more respect, but Clooney pulled it off and made this coldhearted manager's character likeable, while in real life I should have loathed such a manager, who fires people for a living. Lots of praise for the direction by Jason Reitman, because he achieved to make a melancholic feel good picture about a subject that is just depressing: firing people. Everything is smooth about this picture. Endearingly, funny smooth. Just a lovely melancholic romantic comedy mixed into a depresing story about firing people.Acting is terrific. Really subtle. The funny and endearing characters got my sympathy, although all of the characters were rather selfish and superficial. Still I really liked and understood them in the end. Great role by Anna Kendrick. This movie might seem like an innocent story about Clooney flirting with stewardesses while travelling the country for his job, but there is a lot more to it. It really gives a warmhearted message about the pros and cons of commitment in a relationship. Touching, funny and true to life portrait of a loner who is in doubt wether he wants to settle down and have a family... Will he or wont he?Gorgeous soundtrack. Mesmirizing photography and very impressive editing.It is truly a splendid gem. I think it is director Reitman's best work.

Ian This was an 8 until the slightly Up In The Air ending!Good screenplay from a book I haven't read (and never will). Generally well paced but a few draggy moments (why oh why do they do the montage with music?) where, perhaps, another eye might have spotted the slowness - writer/director syndrome.Good acting from the leads. Who doesn't love George Clooney? Vera Farmiga is superb as the femme fatale and Anna Kendrick is always wonderful.So it was probably the book that wimped out on a definitive ending although perhaps the screenplay didn't enforce the impression of how life goes on for our protagonist. Just sometimes it's really nice to know, after spending 1:45 minutes of your life on a movie.Otherwise a very watchable movie with good(ish) script and dialogue. Just be prepared to read a bit into the scenario to find an ending.

roblesar99 I wasn't expecting Up in the Air's last fifteen minutes to hit me like they did. But writer-director Jason Reitman's film packs a punch. The film follows Ryan Bingham, a corporate "downsizer" who spends the majority of his time traveling from city to city. Contrary to what one might think, Bingham enjoys the constant traveling. His Omaha apartment is bare and the 43 days that he had to spend there the year prior are described as "miserable." One night in Dallas, he meets Alex Goran, a traveling businesswoman, and the two immediately hit it off due to their similar lifestyles. George Clooney is in top form as the cynical Bingham, whose career has insulated him from human contact. His chemistry with Alex is palpable, exemplified by the twinkle in their eyes when they look at each other for the first time to the way that they interact when Bingham gives her a tour of his old high school.Reitman's writing establishes the connection between these characters but Clooney and Vera Farmiga bring it to life. Farmiga herself delivers a performance that rivals Clooney's, magnificently capturing the sensuality and tenacity required to make her character work. And as a recent Cornell grad named Natalie Keener who has big plans for the future of the company that Bingham works for, Anna Kendrick delivers her best work to date. Keener accompanies Bingham on his travels in order to learn about the difficulties that he faces in telling workers that the company that they are working for has decided to unemploy them. In the process, Kendrick captures Keener's naivety remarkably, and we watch her wide-eyed enthusiasm fade away because of the draining task at hand.Reitman succeeds brilliantly at transporting the audience right back to the late-2000s, bringing memories of the economic downturn back to the forefront. In a stroke of genius, Reitman interviewed dozens of recently laid-off workers and included segments of these interviews in the film. While they don't take up too much time, they do touch on the bitter realities of unemployment and the recession. However, the film is primarily a character study focused on Bingham, with existential undertones and moments of genuine hilarity. Because of his relationship with Alex (and to a lesser degree, his relationship with Keener), Bingham begins to let his cynical exterior fade away and falls in love, despite his aversion to marriage and lack of human connection. I suspect that it's this subtle shift in character that Reitman and Clooney so expertly portray that allowed for the last fifteen minutes of the film to land with such a brute emotional impact.Up in the Air proved a more difficult watch than I was expecting. Not because it requires superior intellect to decode its jokes or anything of the like, but because it's deviously complex. The relationships between our three leads are one thing, but Reitman's willingness to comment on mass unemployment and human connection, all with an existential touch, is something else entirely. And all the way up to its unexpectedly moving (and somewhat devastating) conclusion, the film manages to delight and entertain.Rating: 8/10 (Great)

Nadine Salakov "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.