Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) fires people for a living. His home is the airport and the plane. His aim is to become one of the few people in the country who have flown 10million miles. He has no time for people, no time for relationships, save for the occasional tyrst with Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga) when they cross flight paths.
Yet when the young Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) introduces the idea of a way of firing people via video-link, it would seem that Ryan's whole philosophy-no commitment, no trouble-comes under fire.
My favourite thing about this film is that it doesn't have a happy ending, which makes the story feel real. As the film moved towards its conclusion I panicked that it was going to go all Hollywood and tie up the ending with a neat ribbon. But no such thing happened.
Clooney is good as the 'every man is an island'-esque Bingham, and Farmiga exudes a woman-of-a-certain-age appeal as his love interest. Yet my favourite performance is that of Anna Kendrick, whose other film roles seem to constitute just the Twilight saga, which I have not seen. But, judging by this performance, she is a young actress to watch.
I also enjoyed the performance of Amy Morton as Ryan's sister Kara, who takes it upon herself to keep the family together and the cameo of JK Simmons as one of the people that Ryan has to fire.
This is a really enjoyable film, that doesn't gloss over the disappointments in life, kudos to Jason Reitman for writing and directing a film that even makes checking into an airport look fun.
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