A blast of welcome cold air

Rating: 9/10 (24 January 2010)

This is a chilly comedy, and that's not just because the location filming was conducted mostly in the American mid-west in February 2009. Being sacked is seldom funny and Jason Reitman's use of real victims of the layoff process (along with some adroit actors) reveals some of the real pain of "outplacement". George Clooney's character Ryan Bingham is a master of the process. His company is hired by others all over the US "too cowardly to do their own sacking" though given the ultra-litigious American scene there is a lot to be said for employing an expert to do the dirty work. Ryan's task as he sees it is to shepherd the victims on to the next phase of their lives (and cut down the litigation). It helps that he is a man without family commitments of his own who lives out of his suitcase "up in the air" in the world of airports, hotels and rental cars, his only serious life goal being the attainment of ten million passenger miles with one of the better bits of product placement seen recently, the trusty American Airlines (did anyone notice the billboard at one airport with a photo of Captain Chesley Sullenberger, hero of the Hudson River ditching on it?) The tension here is provided by Ryan being forced to show the ropes to Natalie (Anna Kendrick) an eager young beaver straight out of business school who has given Ryan's smarmy boss Craig (Jason Bateman) the idea of replacing road warriors with the internet. The romantic sparks are not provided by her, but by Alex (Vera Farmiga), an older woman Ryan meets in his travels, a road warrior like him, who seemingly has no attachments either. Their affair blossoms, but, sorry folks, this isn't that sort of comedy.
Rather, this is about as an intelligent piece of film-making Hollywood is capable of producing. Reitman's earlier movies, "Thank You For Not Smoking" and "Juno" were equally intelligent but here he has been able to create some depth of feeling, aided enormously by George Clooney's charm. He is exactly right for the part, and meshes perfectly with the beautiful Vera Famiga. I am at the stage of life where I find the likes of Natalie (a rollerblader, capable of going very fast in one direction) just plain annoying but I must admit Anna Kendrick does a good job to the extent that I almost feel sorry for her.
Reitman was lucky with his timing here – as he filmed the US went into a financial crisis and slipped into recession. Millions have lost their jobs. As it happened, I watched the movie with my boss sitting just behind me. It was salutary to observe he was laughing at several points where I was not, but then again, I laughed at several points when there was silence from behind. Remember salary-men, their interests are not always yours.