Cool, complicated, and impossibly sexy, Alex, the business traveler played by Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air, is a role to die for. She spars with - and seduces - George Clooney's corporate downsizer (his job: to lay people off). She has collected nearly as many frequent-flyer miles as he has - and prides herself on the efficiency with which she crisscrosses the land, briskly navigating hotel check-ins, airport security lines, rental-car agencies, and chain restaurants.