There are some movies you see because you want to, and some you see because you have to. Little did I suspect that Up In the Air is both.

 Up in the Air is the 'new George Clooney' movie, doing well in award buzz, and decently at the box office. in it, Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, who fires people for a living because their real bosses are too chickenshit to do it themselves. He spent 322 days last years on the road, meaning he "wasted" 43 days at "home" in Omaha, where his apartment is a bachelor 'suite' with all the charm of the hotel rooms he prefers. 

 “What’s in Your Backpack?” is the motivational speaking sideline of Bingham,who considers becoming a fulltime speaker when his company converts to termination by video conference.

 Up in the Air challenges us to consider what is in OUR backpacks – that we ARE all bogged down both by ‘stuff’ and by commitments to people. As Bingham preaches, we can chose not to be weighed down. As Bingham comes to realize, we can also make choices to refill our backpack with the things we want in our lives. We may all die alone, as Bingham points out, but it is how we enjoy the journey that is the central puzzle of life, and the object of this film.

 Nothing in this film is pretentious or preachy. It is tightly crafted and deftly comes defly disguised as a romantic comedy - right down to the pivotal wedding scene. . Though it is a tad heavy with exposition early on, there is significant action – in Bingham’s hotel beds; at a party; at the wedding- to entertain. There is humour and melodrama, done lightly – I barely teared up before the wedding, and then again towards the end.

The principal actors – Clooney, Vera Famiga, and relative newcomer Anna Kendrick as Bingham’s foil, who demands that he consider whether his life has more meaning than accumulating 10 million American Airlines frequent flyer miles- all become their characters – never once do you see them acting. Kendrick is an especial surprise, playing a character who grows through the narrative, and convincing us of the transition.

 Don’t be fooled by the plot surrounding Bingham’s job as a travelling harbinger of employment death – the film does not skip lightly over this reality, but, as he did in Juno with abortion and adoption, Jason Reitman folds this theme neatly into the mix.

 In a decade of big explosion movies and computer animation, this human scaled  film about real life is a rare treat.