Ryan Bingham is panicking. It's not that he's losing his job. There are no dilemmas that are plaguing his family. Ryan is panicking because, for once, he has to settle down and face the fact that soon he'll have to stop and take a catalogue of what his life has become over the last few years of his life. Traveling around the world, Ryan is the man companies hire to break it to employees that they have been terminated. And he prides himself in being ruthless and merciless in regards to emotions and insecurities involving people he just met and will probably never meet again. Ryan now has to take stock and decide what he has to do now that his company has decide to take its employees and bring them back down to Earth downsizing their traveling due to their slowly decreasing funds and productivity. "Up in the Air" couldn't have come at a better time. In a world where the recession is crippling every major career and every single family, director Jason Reitman takes a look at the lives of the men and women who make their money on firing and letting go disgruntled employees who want to know why.

The two don't necessarily have a relationship, but what scares Ryan is that he may be close enough. Natalie Keener is representative of the future of Ryan's business, a young prodigy who is convinced that she has the company's fate in her hands. She is basically Ryan sans the guts to take a person's life in her hands and crush their hopes and dreams. As she learns the tricks of the trade she also learns the brutality and reality of the job as she travels through many companies where the employees either have an emotional breakdown or vow to end their own lives. Soon she becomes the woman that Ryan once was, and Ryan becomes the symbol of what she may or may not want to transform in to. Jason Reitman's dramedy is a very intelligent (filled to the brim with clever dialogue) look at our workforce and the people who sneak in to the shadows to yank us from our security.

"Up in the Air" is a stellar tale of the traveling business man and the gimmick he sells to customers around the world that continues to crumble under the recession. Clooney gives a marvelous performance alongside Farmiga and Kendricks while Reitman pleases yet again. I look forward to seeing what else he's capable of.