Up in the Air

Rating: 8
Genre: Adult Drama
Running Time: 1:49
Starring: George Clooney, Vera Famiga, Anna Kendrick

Clooney plays a hired gun who blies from city to city handing out pink slips to corporate employees, mostly middle management types. His firm is a subcontracter to other corporations" top brass who would rather not handle this dirty job. His business is especially robuts during the recent economic downturn. He goes about his job with a smooth detachment, conducting interviews that end with his handing out a packet designed to help the fired employee make the transition to "new beginnings." Along the way he begins an affair with another corporate traveler; takes a young female worker on trips in hopes of convincing her that his way of face-to-face interviews is best; and reluctantly attends his sister's wedding.

I've tended to resist the notion that Clooney is much more than a handsome heart-throb who spends too much time in advocacy of liberal causes. But the guy can act! He seems to have an excellent sense of comedic timing. This is a really entertaining and absorbing movies.