Up in the Air is comedy with a bite. It certainly has plenty of laughs, but hiding underneath is a consideration of how we value the things that make up our lives.

Ryan Bingham spends his life flying from city to city and living in hotels. His job is to fire people from their jobs when corporations downsize. He's good at his job. He knows he'll never see these people again. He can be blunt or caring as the situation requires. He has no friends, only people he meets—mostly people living a similar life. He likes this life with no connections. It makes him feel free. He even does motivational seminars on how to simplify life.

Natalie Keener is a young woman fresh out of school who has suggested to the company that they can use Internet connections to fire people instead of traveling from place to place. Ryan opposes the idea and is assigned to take her with him so she can learn more about the process. He teaches her all the tricks of travel. He teaches her all the ways to respond to people being fired. Will she be sucked into living like Ryan, or will he discover just how empty his life really is?

It's a bit ironic that Ryan, who thinks job terminations should be face to face, is in fact truly impersonal and uncaring. He has distanced himself from everybody in his life. Certainly these strangers touch his heart. Natalie on the other hand wants to make the process more impersonal, but has a very good sense of empathy. Natalie struggles with her role when she is face to face with those being fired. Her goal is to have a nifty flow chart script for every contingency. That is her way of trying to keep it all at arm's length.

What begins to break through the wall Ryan has built around himself is his sexual relationship with Alex, a woman whose life, like Ryan's, is spent in airports and hotels. The relationship begins as a casual connection, but it opens Ryan's eyes to what life could be with someone in his life. Eventually he even sees that family and home may be a better way of life than his life lived out of a backpack.

Although the character is exaggerated, Ryan's view of life is very much a part of our culture. When he gives his "What's in Your Backpack" seminars, the goal is to get rid of attachments that "weigh you down." That includes possessions (like homes) and relationships (friends and family). He is only concerned with himself and reaching his goals. Yet he is searching for meaning in his life. He prides himself on being so independent, but he has been trying to fill his life with pseudo-intimacy, like being welcomed by name by airline employees—not because they know him, but because of his frequent-flyer status card. He thinks if he can reach ten million frequent flier miles (he'd be only the seventh to get there) he will have done something special. He will get his own special card with even more perks. When he reaches that goal, he discovers just how empty an objective that really was.

The film weaves a collection of related metaphors into a very meaningful picture of just how detached we can become when we retreat into (as Natalie referred to Ryan's life) our "cocoon of self-banishment."

It's interesting that the film comes out at a time when unemployment is so high. When Jason Reitman started developing the project, the economy was booming. In the current economic crisis people losing jobs isn't a laughing matter. Reitman filmed real people who had lost jobs and let them say what they said (or wish they had said) when terminated. He is not playing their misery for laughs; rather he gives a bit of dignity to the hundreds of thousands of people who have gone through this experience. Their comments focus on things like family and home—the very things missing from Ryan's life.

Ryan has let his sense of individualism cut him off from any kind of community. He finally comes to the realization that "life is better with company," but it may be too late for him to escape the loneliness he has built for himself. He travels to many cities, but sees their airports, hotels, and corporate offices—he never sees the life that takes place in those cities. He never sees the life all around him. That is a sad and lonely way to live.

In one seemingly unimportant line, one character correctly calls him "somebody who's lost." In the end he is lonely in a crowded airport and lost staring at a destination board offering innumerable options.

Note: There is a small reward for those who stay around for the closing credits. The second song during the credits has its own story.