Up in the Air is a poignant, fresh, and remarkable movie that brightens the day of anyone who sees it.  Adapted from the book of the same name, director Jason Reitman delivers his best movie to date, quite a feat after the presentations of Thank you for Smoking and most recently Juno.

Ryan (George Clooney) works in an unusual industry.  He fires people for a living.  The economic meltdown means high times for him and companies hire him to lay off their clients when they don’t have the balls to do it themselves.  He is traveling almost every day of the year and his goal in life is to reach the 10 million frequent miles club, a feat only few have done.  He lives this sheltered and lonely lifestyle although thrives on the mere acquaintances and conversations he has with everyday people.  Natalie (Anna Kendrick) is the stud recruit out of Cornell who helps the company develop a way to lower costs by implementing new technology to help them fire people over the computer.  When Ryan realizes his lifestyle for living on the road will vanish, he pleads with his boss not to do this, and that the human connection side of firing someone has to be done face to face.  His boss (the always funny Jason Bateman), sends Natalie with Ryan to learn the ropes of the trade from him as the two set off around the country.

The movie crosses generational gaps between the two with everything from work, to dreams, and of course love.  Love something Ryan doesn’t want or believe in, manages to fall for an independent business woman named Alex (Vera Farmiga) who also is always on the road.  The two begin this quasi-relationship and Natalie learns as much from Ryan about the job and life and he does from her.

This movie has Clooney playing typical good looking, suave, confident and cocky Clooney, and it fits to a “T” here and you wouldn’t want it any other way.  The role was made for him and his charm and wit can be seen throughout the whole movie with the excellent script he was given to work with.  Whether talking about life with Natalie, or flirting with Alex, this is one movie that will have you pleased throughout.

Being a fan of the past two Reitman movies, it’s hard to imagine he could top those, and he did.  Direction and script were spot on and this movie had everything you could want in it for it to succeed.  This easily is one of the best movies of the year, Clooney will be nominated for best Actor, and this may even be the front runner for movie of the year.  Although I don’t think the Oscar Academy will give this movie the award, it certainly is in my top 3 of the year.

What did you think of Up in the Air?