Movies a Bite at a Time #3 - Up in the Air

This movie was ideal for watching at work for the following reasons:
1. It challenges you to figure out what you want in life
2. The language used by the characters was on a level that I would not want my daughter accidentally hearing
3. With the premise of travelling from city to city, it made it easy to find the right moments to stop for the day. Next city, stop.

George Clooney has been lauded for his role as Ryan Bingham, a jet setting business man whose line of work is to fire people. Seems rather harsh, but it's a living, and he does his job exceptionally well. He also does not have anything or anyone tying him down to one place. He has a one bedroom apartment in Omaha, Nebraska, where his company is headquartered, but it has all the amenity and charm of a hotel room. Possibly a hospital room.

When life throws him a curve ball, and the company is thinking of changing their format to videoconferencing, Bingham is faced with the fact he might have to live at one address. Not about to go into the night quietly, he takes one last road trip, showing Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) how it's done in the field. Along the way, Bingham hooks up with another jet setter, Alex Goran played by Vera Farmiga. They have romantic encounters from time to time, even inviting her to his sister's wedding, and he starts to think that he could spend his life with her.

The twists and surprises that follow were typical, but done in an unusual manner. It's hard to say if there is a happy ending, because it largely depends on what you call happy. That was the other thing that made this movie fun, yet annoying to watch on Toshi. The unit does not have a runtime clock to indicate how far along you are in the movie. Also, since I was watching the movie in random increments, I lost track how long I had been watching the movie and the player picks up where I left off, so I don't need to go to the chapter menu to get an idea of where I am in the film. I just kept watching until the credits rolled.

Funny, moving, and throwing in a dash of reality just to keep the viewer in bewilderment, this movie delivers some good entertainment. The line that sums up things the best is when Bingham is giving his sister's fiancee some advice to get over his cold feet, "Life's better with company."

How ironic that I watched this movie alone. And still liked it.