Up in the Air - also describes my feelings about this movie

So many things to say! I don't even know where to begin. I mean, you know going into it that it's going to be romanticized, and that Ryan (George Clooney) will, in the end, decide he hates his solitary life of traveling 322 days a year. You know it's coming, you don't know how or when, and that's Jason Reitman's job. He does it well. Ryan meets his match in Alex. A sexy woman his age who also travels for a living. Don't know what her job is, don't care. She and Ryan compare notes in the form of loyalty program cards, Hilton Honors points, and membership cards. Ryan blows her out of the water. He's an expert packer, traveler, small talk maker, and firer (that's what HIS job is). He's tasked with showing a young ingénue at his company the ropes. She's an idealistic 23 year old whipper snapper who thinks that you can fire people via webcam and save money on travel. Ryan is going to prove her wrong. I know a movie is going to be a little bit more dramatic than any real life situation, but Natalie shows up for her first flight with a giant suitcase that doesn't roll very well, that she intends to check. I barely travel but I know that's a recipe for disaster. Ryan's first order of business: buy a suitcase that you can carry on. So she opens her luggage in the middle of the airport to transfer her belongings. She has not only a neck pillow (in her checked baggage??) but a full size pillow in case the hotel doesn't offer such amenities. I get it, they were making a point. Travel light. And for the sake of the movie she needed to have things in her bag Ryan could throw out without looking like a dick. You can't very well get the viewer to believe he'd toss 7 pairs of shoes while she smiles.

So Natalie is "on board". They fire people together, the predictable baloney happens. She takes it too hard, she messes up a few times, she gets better, she thinks it might be better to fire in person. Aside from offering a vehicle through which Ryan has developed his motivational speaking engagements (What's in your backpack?) his job is sort of inconsequential as well. He meets Alex in a hotel bar early on. They have a fling. It seems to be getting serious when he invites her home for his sister's wedding. She hesitates then says she'd love to. They get in a little deeper. They are both "very glad" he brought her home. Ryan sees the benefit of settling down with one person. Coming home to someone every night; having someone to count on. He goes to Chicago, and shows up on Alex's doorstep, perhaps to tell her this. The shocking twist? She's married with children! You don't see that every day. The woman using a man as her outlet from her humdrum existence. The next day Alex calls Ryan and reprimands him for nearly messing up her life. Though she never told Ryan she was married, or that she had kids, and she spent a weekend exploring his hometown and getting close to his family, she is shocked that he thought they were at all serious. Maybe this was supposed to be some commentary on how women are becoming stronger. Ladies: this isn't how we achieve equality. Don't sink to his level! If a man did that the woman would have marched into his house and told his wife exactly what was going on while he's traveling on "business".

Ryan re-evaluates his life, hits the one goal he had for himself (flying 10 million miles) and that's kind of it. We get the impression he wants to settle down. Will he? No clue. Maybe we should assume he considered trying it with Alex but she burned him so bad he won't risk it again. It's unclear, and I didn't feel like this was a movie where I wanted the end to be ambiguous enough that it was left up to me. Everything was spoon fed to you throughout, why stop now? I didn't feel like Ryan had enough of a transformation from self sufficient loner for me to even care.

I'm most torn on Alex. I just hate women like her. I'd hate a man who did the same, don't get me wrong. But I expect more from my sex. She travels for a living. She's barely home. Yet she spent a full weekend away from her husband and small children to play girlfriend to a man she clearly has no interest in beyond using him as a distraction. She never came out and said "I'm single and always have been, and I have no children" but she more than implies it. Natalie is grilling her about her decision to live her life the way she has, with no partner, and she defends her solitary existence. Was she lying or does she feel that way? I say lying, and it bothers me almost as much as her lying to Ryan. She obviously did think it was important to have that family life at home, but sells Natalie a song and dance about how it's not what really matters. Being happy is more important than settling. It doesn't seem like she settled. She could have been honest with Ryan and tried for a future with him. She wants to have her cake and eat it too, and people like her? Life just works out for them.

I did like it. I loved watching Ryan pack up his suitcase and march to the front of every line everywhere. I want to travel like him, without the 10 million miles to back it up. I wish I was confident enough to have a drink alone at a bar; strike up conversations with whomever; and fly without Xanax. I have gone on one business trip in my life and I ordered room service and ate alone in my PJs. It does make business travel mighty glamorous!

The breakout excitement I wasn't expecting? Jason Bateman. He should be in every movie. I just love him. I also just found out this was a book first. I hate it when I don't know that. I think I'd have liked this better in a book. I'm interested to know how they handled the Alex situation. I just don't like how she really seemed to be on the same page as Ryan. But we find out she wasn't even a bit torn. She didn't fall so hard for Ryan she couldn't control herself. She just wanted to have some fun. Ugh. Solidarity sister...but I'm still disappointed.

I find myself disappointed in women in film lately (Meryl Streep in It's Complicated). I need a strong woman in a movie to bring back my faith! Coincidence that the movies are made and written by men? Nahh...

The film's tagline is that he's a man trying to make a connection. I don't think he does. He attempts to of course, but he's burned by it. Basically proving he was right all along. Whether you get married, have children and spend your life with your true love, you're still going to die alone. So why bother.