I think you may be a little off base on Ryan Bingham's character. Sure, his job is a tough one and he may come off like a jerk, but I think he eventually shows that he really does care about his work and firing people as "appropriately" as he can. At first, we think this is just motivation for keeping his job and keeping himself in the air, but you slowly learn that there IS an art (and a heart) to his business. As for the part near the end where you say he shows no emotion… he does that to save Natalie's job, as she was the one who handled the firing of that woman. I definitely think there was some powerful storytelling going on in this film. It's certainly a flick that kept me thinking, even after the credits rolled.