Latest screening: Up In The Air

It’s starting to seem like every other George Clooney film brings with it a tag of George’s best performance yet. Intermixed with fun, goofy roles like in Burn After Reading and, from the looks of it, the upcoming Men Who Stare At Goats, we’ve had Syriana, Michael Clayton and now Up In The Air.

Up In The Air is not as serious as those other two but it is not goofy either. It is funny, very funny, but perhaps is Clooney’s most human performance.

Much of this can, no doubt, be credited to writer/director Jason Reitman. With Thank You For Smoking, Juno and now this he has shown a trend for mixing humour, both subtle and caustic, with heart and emotion without sentimentalising his character and descending into schmaltz. It is a fine line to tread and if anything Reitman is only getting better at it.

Up In The Air is a well judged look at the relationships in the life a guy who thinks he needs none. His relationship to his job, his “hobby”, his colleagues, his potential nemesis, his family, his lover, all come into the mix as we follow him as he flies around the US building up his air miles toward a dream goal and doing his day job – firing people for companies who don’t want to do their on dirty work.

This too is well handled. Reitman could have brought the more cynical and satirical edges he did particularly in Thank You For Smoking (and they do occasionally pop up, George one-liner following the revelation of how a boyfriend broke up with another character is the zinger of the year and evoked a massive audience reaction) but in a time when job loss and economic misery are effecting so many Reitman uses real people, mixed with an occasional actor (such as the ever reliable JK Simmons) to make you feel what they are going through. While doing this he also manages to make a likeable character out of the completely self-absorbed Ryan Bingham (Clooney) despite his job description. This alone would be an impressive feat.

This is almost a Frank Capra movie. Except this is a Frank Capra movie with edge. Ryan Bingham is no Mr Deeds or Mr Smith, an instantly sympathetic, loveable character. Bingham is kind of an ass but this is his story and you’ll be routing for him.

Clooney, as said, has rarely been better and Vera Farmiga gives sterling support as his literally fly-by-night lover. Danny McBride, Amy Morton and Melanie Lynskey are all solid in small roles, and Jason Bateman likewise has little to do. The real stand-out in support though is Anna Kendrick. It’s a tricky role that could easily come off whiny and irritating, or calculating and bitchy, etc but Kendrick takes an again not wholly likeable character and invests her with such vulnerability and well-meaning naivety that she wins you over. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a supporting actress nomination headed her way amongst several possible nods for this highly enjoyable and well judged film.