How Much Does Your Life Weigh?

*The above picture was taken by my assistant in Cannes 2 years ago - George and the rest of the Oceans 12? 13? crew walked right past our window at the Palais du Festivals on the way to their press conference*

So, my obvious, awkward, man-crush on George Clooney aside, I saw the footage of Reitman's new film "Up In The Air" previewed at the Toronto Film Fest in September, and it knocked my socks off.

The 'teaser footage' below is something that Jason Reitman cut exclusively for the web. He had a battle royale with the marketing folks at Paramount to release it. The officially sanctioned trailers 1, 2, & 3 are all very well done - but this one is the best. Well done Sir! Well done indeed!

The basic guts of the story is about a guy who is corporate downsizer, which means that he works for a company who is contracted by their clients to fire their own employees. He has no life, travels 300 days a year, has a goal to make 10,000,000 air miles, and is more at home in an airport, rather than, well, than at home. Until he gets downsized. The National Post has a pretty nice review. I'm sure there are others that are better, but the way Chris Knight spun his tale about the film - it just kind of stuck with me.

As one who has spent a considerable amount of time in airports, flitting from one city to another, one continent to another, (or quite infrequently, one relationship to another), while risking nothing but an inconsequential personal life... I'm completely down with this story. They even interviewed (and filmed) 25 people who had lost their jobs during this massive recession, and included them in the movie.

For the record? I'm only up to 92,000 air miles. Thank goodness.