In any case, I thought it was not such an exciting movie but rather an opportunistic attempt -with shamefully moralistic tones- to keep the recession victims sedated. I did like your post though, thanks for that!

First off, to be transparent, I have not seen Up in the Air.

However, I take issue with your comment that it is a post-modern chick-flick because it becomes clearly evident that traditional “chick flick” scenarios (read – romance and a relationship) are far superior than the alternative.

Seems to me that this has lost sight of the purpose of a chick flick; not to convince some guy that “he better marry you” but rather to offer women a sense of emotional / sexual excitement and pseudo fulfillment — akin to porn for men. In the same way that watching a movie about older women who regret not being more sexually adventurous would (likely) not do too much for young men, but might convince their girlfriends to try something new. Not necessarily a bad date movie, by any stretch of the imagination, but not po-mo porn either.

As my conception of post-modernism is more about a current trend being taken to (or beyond) its logical conclusion, by the standards of modern society, it would seem far more like a post-modern James Bond — where a single guy is singularly focused on an outcome with seeming little analysis.

Thanks for the thought provoking post!
Rebecca