Sad Sack

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2010)

The idea of writing an obnoxious character sympathetically is hardly new - Holly Golightly, a whore in all but name - comes to mind, as does C.C. Baxter, the role played by Jack Lemmon in The Apartment, who cynically allows senior management figures in his organization to use his apartment for assignations in order to advance his career. George Clooney's Ryan Bingham is cut from the same cloth; this is a guy who flies around the country firing (or sacking as we say in England)people for a living and actually relishing it and the lifestyle it affords him.Clooney can, of course, do charm, and he does it here which distracts from the type of career he has chosen. He is also given a romantic interest in the delightful shape of Vera Farmila and a happy ending seems on the cards until an improbable plot twist deep sixes it. As feel-good goes this is as good as it gets, as nasty taste in the mouth goes it also tests high.