Up In The Air is excellent cinema

[George Bellefontaine]

A character piece starring George Clooney as a downsizing ( firing ) expert who travels the globe. He is about to reach his 10 millionth frequent flyer mile plateau when his company hires a young lady ( Anna Kendrick ) with an idea that would threaten Clooney's lifestyle.Clooney is given an opportunity to take her on the road with him, during which he hopes to open her eyes to the reality of the art of " firing " , and after meeting the frequent flyer of his dreams ( Vera Farmiga ) things happen that open his eyes to his own self-centeredness.

This is a helluva fine film with excellent performances by all three leading actors. It's a character piece, as I mentioned earlier, so things do move slowly, but your patience will be well rewarded. I can see how Clooney was nominated for an Oscar for this role. You don't see Clooney, you see the man-living-out-of-a-suitcase he portrays. He makes acting look so darn easy.
See this. You won't be sorry.

[DelRay]

Good to know. Looks like I'll be renting this one next. I really like Clooney. I'm hoping it has a good portion of his humor/wit.

[Ovation]

My wife wants to see this as well as me, so perhaps I can coax her off the living room sofa to join me in the "man-cave".

[George Bellefontaine]

It'll be time well spent, guys.

[littlesaint]

I'm starting to like Anna Kendrick. The fact that she could go from Twilight, to this, and back to Twilight shows some pretty good range considering the characters.

[Gump]

I agree the acting in this movie was well done and I am also a Clooney fan. Didn't care for the theme, however. Found the whole ruining peoples lives by firing them thing to be a bit of a downer. Guess I'm at a time in my life when I prefer my movies/entertainment to be more exciting or uplifting. Perhaps it's the current economic atmosphere that made this movie a little too real and pathetic to me. Not trying to hide my head in the sand about what's going on in the world, but for me movies are an escape from all that.

[George Bellefontaine]

I agree the acting in this movie was well done and I am also a Clooney fan. Didn't care for the theme, however. Found the whole ruining peoples lives by firing them thing to be a bit of a downer.

I can well understand that, Gump. I ran a company with more than 300 employees and firing is sometime a necessity. It was never easy for me. The Clooney character was really so self-centered that he was immune to the feelings of those he had to fire. But things happened to him during the film that saw him change to the point where he did start to care about the feelings of others. At the end, he was a changed man.

I feel the "theme" you mentioned, although distasteful to most anyone who may have seen the film, was the appropriate one for the story and the character Clooney portrayed.

[aud19]

The GF and I also felt a bit "off" at the end of this one.

I agree the acting was great but the story left us both wanting. What exactly I don't know but when it ended we were both like ok.... Perhaps it was the fact his love interest ended up being married? Just when we're seeing him become a redeemable character, that happens and you're left with a broken man and another un-redeemable character.

It's funny, I usually appreciate when story tellers have the courage to not wrap everything up in a pretty little bow but I was left disappointed with this one.

[George Bellefontaine]

It's funny, I usually appreciate when story tellers have the courage to not wrap everything up in a pretty little bow but I was left disappointed with this one.

I rather like endings where you can write your own. In this case I did feel he was left with more redeemable qualities than when we were introduced to him in the beginning. I also felt he would never enjoy his work, or the travel, as much as he once did.

[P-Dub]

Will have to watch this again, but I agree with George on the ending.

In the beginning he was focused and on point with his 'life'. At the end, he is going through the motions. I am not sure he 'enjoyed' his work, just that he was really good at it and he enjoyed the travel perks and lifestyle.

The new direction of his company which would put an end to his travel and a potential mirror of himself makes his life interesting. You are pulling for him to succeed and in one area he does, but in the other he doesn't.

[George Bellefontaine]

Yes, that makes sense, Paul.