Ryan Bingham (Clooney) probably has the most thankless job in the world. He works with a Career Transition Counseling (CTC) firm. In other words - He fires people for a living. He spends most of his time flying between cities. He lives out of a suitcase.
He also makes time for a lecture that he gives called “Whats in your backpack” in which he encourages people to not make commitments in your personal life, a mantra which he diligently follows in his life.
An atypical male fantasy - Ryan also has one huge goal – To be the 7th person in the world to make 10 million miles on American Airlines.
On one of his trips Ryan meets Alex (Vera Farmiga), a charming, terribly attractive 34 year old woman who leads a similar life to Ryan. A “different” relationship develops slowly but surely.
Enter Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) a 23 year old Management Trainee from Cornell who has spent 1 year with the organization. She aims to change the culture of the organization by moving CTC to video conference – much to the chagrin of Ryan who asks her to accompany him for the next few days to actually find out what it is like to be in his shoes.
The Casting is Fabulous. Both Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick are brilliant and completely deserved their nominations for this year’s Oscars although I would have pushed at least Vera Farmiga to the best Actress category. George Clooney is perfect for the role. Cant think of anyone else who could have done it better.
The other characters in the movie are also extremely clearly etched out. There are Ryan’s 2 sisters who have all but given up on him thanks to his own tenet in life of staying away from commitments of any sort. So much so that his elder sister has to beg him to do a favour of getting a photograph of some locations with a cardboard cut out of his younger sister and husband to be in the location. The cardboard cut out sequences add to the fun element of the movie as well.
Director Jason Reitman (Juno) gives us yet another masterpiece. A movie that forces one to sit back and actually reflect on whether the journey so far has actually been worth its while. Who do we really care about… What exactly is in our Back Pack???
The entire essence of the movie is summed up by one dialogue between Ryan and Alex when she tells him, “You are an escape, a way for me to break away from the usual, A Parantheses” – stunning and mind $#%&* blowing!!!!!!! Totally gets your goat!!!!!
A Great background score by Rolfe Kent is the icing on the cake.
I haven’t read the novel yet but Walter Kirn would be quite happy with the movie.
Add this to your MUST POSSESS list. Truly superb. 8.5 on 10!!!
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