Up in the Air is, on its surface, about a man who makes his living wreaking havoc on other people’s lives while keeping himself at a safe distance from any real human connection. But it’s also about how difficult it really is to escape the consequences of our actions. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is a corporate assassin hired by companies to inform employees that they have been terminated. Ryan delivers this news to dozens of people each day and then catches a plane to the next city on his itinerary where he does the same thing all over again. He performs his duties with cool and competent professionalism, never taking offense at the insults hurled at him or empathizing with his victims’ pain. He is most at home in the airports of America and his motivating goal is to amass 10 miillion frequent flyer miles.
Of course, events transpire to cause him to second-guess the nature of his efficient but lonely life. His company hires an ambitious young employee who wants to drastically reduce the amount of time employees spend on the road and instead fire people via web conference; a plan that Ryan loathes. He also meets a fellow road warrior (the absolutely beautiful Vera Farmiga) with whom he initiates a casual affair that, much to his surprise, he wants to pursue as a real relationship.
The recession serves as the film’s backdrop, with Ryan as its emissary. He doesn’t spend too much thinking about the consequences facing the people he fires. All the time he spends in airplanes is an apt metaphor for his aloofness from other people. If you expect Ryan to be completely transformed by the end of the movie, you’ll be disappointed. And that’s what makes the movie so great. Ryan discovers that it can get pretty lonely up in the clouds, but life here on earth can be unpredictable and with no clear destination.
