Up in the Air is like Doubt, both in being a well done movie and in tempting viewers to project their values onto its ambiguity. It is about Ryan Bingham, who fires folks for a living. At first the film seems to criticize corporations for firing folks, and to criticize Ryan for his collaboration. But eventually the film doesn’t so much change its mind as lose interest. The movie cares far more about what a willingness to fire people says about Ryan’s character, than it does about the people fired. Once Ryan has an awakening to self-insight, we the audience are fine with whatever he chooses.