This film is based on a novel written by Walter Kim. Ryan Bingham enjoys living out of a suitcase for his job. He travels around the country firing people!! He finds that his lifestyle is threatened by the presence of a potential love interest and a new hire presenting a new business model. Ryan is a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is in jeopardy just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles!! And, just after he's met the frequent-traveller woman of his dreams!!
There are charismatic performances by its three leads. Director Jason Reitman delivers a smart blend of humor and emotion with just enough edge for mainstream audiences. This is a thoughtful drama about a man played by George Clooney who fires people for a living and criss-crosses the country by plane to do so. It examines uncomfortable, grown-up truths that are timely, unemployment, financial stress, perennial family dysfunction and loneliness. It has heavy themes, strong language and some sexual interplay between characters including brief rear nudity. It has enormous empathy and insight that may resonate with older teens who are trying to get their minds around understanding increasingly complex issues. 3 1/2* (I liked this movie)
109 min, Comedy directed and written by Jason Reitman and also written by Sheldon Turner with George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Amy Morton, Melanie Lynskey, J.K. Simmons, Sam Elliott, Danny McBride, Zach Galifianakis, Chris Lowell, Steve Eastin, Marvin Young Cut Chemist, Adrienne Lamping.
Note: Imdb 7.4* out of 10* with 321,439 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 90% with 288 critic reviews 79% with 100,000+ audience scores, Common Sense Media S. Jhoanna Robledo 4* out of 5*, age 17+, 1* violence and role models, 2* drinking, drugs & smoking, 3* sex and consumerism, 4* language, Amazon 4.4* out of 5* with 2,092 reviews, Letterboxd 3.5* with 258 fans.
Special Note: The large number of the people we see fired in the film are not actors but they are people who were recently laid off!! The filmmakers put out ads in St. Louis and Detroit newspapers posing as a documentary crew looking to document the effect of the recession. When people showed up, they were instructed to treat the camera like the person who fired them and respond as they did to their job loss or use this opportunity to say what they wished they had said. A way to discern who are the actors and who are the real people is that the real people do not have dialogue with George Clooney or Anna Kendrick. Their scenes were shot separately. Director Jason Reitman did this intentionally. He felt that real people would freak out about talking to Clooney and Kendrick?
Mistakes: In Natalie's karaoke scene of "Time after Time", the Karaoke monitor scrolls the incorrect lyric "almost left me blind" while Natalie sings the correct lyric, "almost left behind”. The company Ryan works for is switching to firing people through the internet to save travel costs. They can save even more money, the salaries of their own employees by firing them also. As Natalie demonstrates, one employee can fire multiple people throughout the country!! Then, they won't need to hire so many people to fire people over the internet!! Natalie says she wants to be like Alex, when she's Alex's age "in about 15 years." But Alex is 34, which would make Natalie 19. If she graduated from college with a psych degree, she should be at least 21 or older.
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