Great character movie

Rating: 7/10 (29 September 2014)

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) is a professional hatchet man who fires people as a job. He is an expert flyer who gives lectures about how to pack for travel. He's good at his job and his most joyful goal is to attain ten million frequent flyer miles. He meets his perfect flying partner Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) at an airport bar. He deliberately avoids a personal life and his spartan apartment. His sister wants him to photograph a cutout of his niece and her fiancée at different places for their upcoming wedding. Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) is a new hire with a new way to fire people by telecommunication. Bingham is dismayed at the proposal. His boss Craig Gregory (Jason Bateman) forces him to show Keener the ropes.
Clooney and Farmiga have a fun cerebral chemistry. They flirt well together. It's too bad that they can't be on screen more often. Kendrick is great at playing the uptight cute girl. She has a good fun mentor relationship with Clooney. It has some funny moments. The best is when the three leads finally get together. Kendrick in that scene is hilarious. Jason Reitman deftly handles these three characters beautifully. I'm not as enamored with the wedding section. It comes after Kendrick having such great scenes and then she's gone. Farmiga is back but the wedding takes too much attention away from her. The movie reaches a high point with the three leads coming together. I think the movie should have kept up that pace and the wedding took some of the steam out.