First of, I applaud the brilliance of Jason Reitman who masterfullydirected and wrote this film. He is proof that creative genius doessometimes run in families. This film has very adult sensibilities init's wit & humor, it's weighty & timely subject matter, it's showing of howwe tend to compartmentalize our lives and attempt to control things in a waywhich we think can gaurd us from being hurt, but of course, in the end weare only fooling ourselves. Bottomline is, we are all built to interactand in those interactions, there's going to be joy and there's going to be pain.Nobody gets out of here unscathed, but if we are smart and lucky and take the riskof commiting ourselves to something or someone, then we stand to gain much morethan we can ever loose. Out of all of George Clooney's performances so far,I like him in this one the best!---He nails it and you feel for him completely.His performance is supported beautifully by that of Vera Farmiga, who seems to behis perfect female counterpart in his clean, cut & dry, no regrets/no attachmentslife philosophy...at least it seems that way. (That later twist threw me for a loop!)Anna Kendrick is great as the young over-achiever college grad who, in her way,thinks she has her life and career all mapped out, but she too learns that just whenyou think you have all the angles figured out, the game of life switches & shifts on you.Jason Bateman is also great in his supporting role as George Clooney's and Anna Kendrick'scharacters funny but very bottomline boss.I also think it was brilliant of Jason Reitman to use people who have reallyrecently been fired from their jobs for no reason other than the economic downturn,because it adds such depth and reality to their reactions when Clooney'sand Kendrick's characters do what it is that they do for a living,which is flying from city to city and being the human resources "heavies" forcompanies who don't even have the guts to fire their own otherwise loyal andhardworking employees face to face. Many of these people reflect the scenariosof what so many others in this situation have had to deal with....just heart-breaking stuff.This is a great film and deserves all the accolades it's received this year.It gets off some great messages without being preachy about it.A good addition to your DVD collection if you like films with substance and heart.