Air Force chopper pilot Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) finds himself in a commuter train heading into Chicago on a sunny Monday morning, chatting with attractive brunette Christine (Michelle Monaghan) who certainly acts as if she knows him. But he has no idea who she is, who he is, where he is and what's going on: his last memories were of flying a helicopter in Afghanistan. Christine refers to Stevens as "Sean" and says he's a school teacher. When he looks in a mirror, he's startled by the unfamiliar face that stares back at him.

Then the train is ripped apart by a bomb that kills everyone on board.

Turns out that Stevens is part of a top-secret military operation called Source Code and, as he gradually learns from his handler Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), he's going to be sent back to relive the same eight minutes prior to the explosion again and again until he can figure out where the bomb was and who planted it.

There are a lot of sci-fi action films that fall apart by the last reel, films that tax your ability to suspend disbelief until by the end you're just glad to get out of the theater (think of the recent remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still for an example). Source Code holds together remarkably well, with its slick design, constant twists and surprises, and a bad guy who wasn't at all obvious when we try to identify them along with Colonel Stevens. The story makes sense and while the end was a bit melodramatic, it was a satisfying, philosophical ending with a neat twist.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) has just this kind of job in Up In The Air, he's a corporate downsizer brought in to fire excess employees. It's a tough job and Bingham has made a career out of detaching, disassociating from anything that could tie him down, including his long-estranged siblings and their families.

Perpetually on the go, he meets up with fellow frequent flier Alex Goran (Vera Fermiga) and they flirt as they empty their wallets onto the hotel bar table, comparing rewards programs and avoiding anything personal. They end up in bed, and next morning coolly try to find an overlap in their travel schedules so they can meet up again. Soon they're sending each other suggestive text messages and getting involved romantically.

Meanwhile, Bingham's boss Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman) has been bowled over by the young, fresh scrubbed efficiency expert Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), who is convinced that they can just as easily fire people via video conferences and save millions by not having the senior staff in the air.

I've become quite a fan of Clooney in the last few years and expected to like Up In The Air, but it was still much better than I expected. It's a delightful, unpretentious, perfectly assembled romance for our times. Better yet, it unfolds in surprising and unexpected ways and left me satisfied with its distinctly non-Hollywood ending. Strongly recommended.