Day 8: "Up In The Air"

"We are not swans. We are sharks."

Up In The Air is about a man who refuses to give himself a chance at a normal life by traveling across the country for a majority of the year, firing people. Yes, firing people. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) works for an agency that specializes in conducting lay-offs of workers, mostly business corporations. This is a job that Ryan loves, not because he gets to tell an individual that he or she will be coming home jobless, but because he is constantly moving. Throughout the film, Ryan delivers motivational speeches at local seminars. He invokes the idea that "moving is living" and that everything we think that's important to us is only holding us back and making us stagnant. Ryan, to most, seems like a sophisticated individual who is enjoying the life as a single man. Deep down though, Ryan is a broken soul that longs for any kind of human connection. A relationship that'll eventually pull him off the road, for good.

Enter the two woman in her life that turn on the switch that has been lost in the darkness of Ryan's mind; Natalie Keener(Anna Kendrick) and Alex Goran(Vera Farmiga). Oddly enough, Natalie is threatening Ryan's opportunity to continue flying and putting his goal to reach ten million frequent flyer miles at risk. Natalie has come up with the risky yet ingenious idea of firing people over a web cam instead of meeting up with the individual personally. Ryan is obviously opposed to this idea and suggests that she is unqualified of making this type of change to the business that he loves and relies is whole existence upon. So, Ryan is forced to act like "a fucking tour guide" and take Natalie on the road with him. Keener is exposed to the harsh realities of taking a job from a person and basically telling them that their lives are changed forever. Ryan is not a villainous human being. He protects Natalie in the entire film, while Natalie poses the question that Ryan has heard plenty of times throughout his life; what about love?

Alex can easily be perceived as Ryan's match, his soul mate, his key to feeling that connection he's secretly been looking for. Farmiga nails the role. She enters as this seductive, intelligent, and mysterious figure that keeps Ryan wanting more and more throughout the film. Alex is the one person who Ryan feels comfortable enough around to allow inside his heart an most importantly his mind. Not just because of the qualities I mentioned earlier but because he feels that she shares the same morals as he does, and for once, he feels that he won't be judged or unfairly criticized for his way of thinking. All signs point to Ryan finally being able to settle down both figuratively and physically until tragedy and a secret challenge Ryan to make a decision. Continue flying while the world rejoices in their relationships on the ground or finally help himself out for a change?

This is a film all about relationships rather than connections. Allow yourself to become vulnerable around the right people and you might just have someone save you from your own loneliness and despair.