Overrated dramedy - spends too much time "up in the air"

Rating: Null/10 (22 February 2011)

It's tricky to make these "Dramedies" - part drama, part comedy. You either have a lot of humorous but not funny incidents that don't get enough laughs. Or you don't get your audience fully engaged in the storyline or characters and they wonder where the drama fits in.
For me this movie unfortunately fit both descriptions; neither funny nor dramatic. The plot is wafer thin. It's the recession, people are getting laid off everywhere. So why not outsource the firings and have a bunch of professionals flying around the country telling people they've been let go. It's a very dark premise and given today's situation, perhaps one that hits too close to home. So immediately, for much of the audience, you've probably lost a lot of the intended comedic irony from that situation.
then you have the characters. None of them is particularly 'like-able'. Clooney is a "character" but not one who is charming nor engaging. His character is meant to be trying to distance himself from others, but again, his success in portraying that is a detriment to the audience actually getting connected to his character. So he fails for being successful. Anna Kendrick, the young go-getter is primed to fill that void as the film's heroine but her project - firing people by webcam to save the company money, also reeks of insensitivity, or at best naivety. And Vera Farmigiana, well, she looks good in a tight black dress.
And there you have it. The funny scenes are more "droll" than funny. You get it. It's humorous. But it's definitely not 'laugh out loud' funny.
the characters are hollow, empty, and floating away on a sea of misery, largely of their own making.
4/10 - I've watched it once. And that's enough.