Being Up in the Air

Imagine you have been working for a company for years and now have to get laid off by a fourth grader as someone put it in the film. The young lady was not so young as to be in primary school but her character could have been classed as such for her to be a naive as she was about adult relationships that exist today. Then she was just out of school and very hopeful as are so many of them when they get their first careers. Only that career was unusual for someone just starting off. It had to do with her wanting work at firing people for other companies. America is downsizing again!

What can I learn from the film about social trends? That a single guy might think he has all the cards in his hands about picking up a woman when he wants and finds out that if she is only looking for pleasure and there are no bonds, then nothing should be expected. But that is the life choice of the main fictional character in the office suit running to awareness meetings, so that he can prepare his agents on how to fire. His personal life remains up in the air and nothing is ever set in stone but it must get pretty lonely whenever he gets the urge to date as couples regularly do.

George Clooney played well in his role as a believable firing agent who asked people to open themselves up after years of working in one company. He acted alongside a younger woman fresh out of college who had her hopes set up for meeting the right man and that failed miserably. Good contrast between her squeaky-clean persona and George’s. Good believable romanticizing on the side as even George is fooled into what he would never have wanted: a committed relationship.

The relationships are somewhat flighty just as the trips between the cities that the actors took along the way but that is how it is now when one can’t even be sure that you can hold a job even firing people!