Normally I only review movies I see in a theater if only because I would not be able to keep up if I included movies seen in airplanes and on DVD. However, I’ve decided to make an exception for those movies I see on DVD screeners that I receive thanks to being a member of the Screen Actors Guild. To promote movies for the SAG awards, some studios provide screeners to SAG members (a non-trivial 100,000 membership) in advance of the awards. The Up in the Air DVD all but self-destructs after the awards: reminders that it is for awards screening appear every 10-15 minutes at the bottom of the screen.

So how’s the movie? One of the best this year. It certainly stands out as a thoughtful and touching movie with an intelligent script compared to most of the formulaic genre movies that make it to the multiplex. When I mention that it is about a man whose job it is to go around firing people, the movie might sound like an art-house downer. It is nothing of the kind. George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham who works for a company that other companies hire to handle the messy business of laying off their employees. So he flies back and forth across the country, pursuing an astronomical number of frequent flier miles. In fact, entry to the most elite club of frequent fliers (“I have a number in mind. I’m not there yet.”) seems to be Ryan’s life goal. Unburdened by anything to large to fit into his carry-on bag, his least favorite destination is his own home. When he’s not telling people they’ve been fired, he gives motivational speeches. The wrinkle is that he is trying to motivate people to disconnect. Disconnect from their belongings and their human relationships. They are, after all, the heaviest baggage we lug around. Right?

When his company hires Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick) fresh out of college and full of ideas to streamline downsizing, Ryan’s clockwork march to lonely frequent flier supremacy is put in jeopardy. But not in the way he first thinks. Ryan tutors Natalie while carrying on a casual airport-hotel affair with Alex (Vera Farmiga), another frequent flier. Ryan’s estranged family, and Natalie, and even Alex inadvertently offer Ryan glimpses of an alternate life. Ryan, professing lack of interest in personal baggage, is nevertheless frequently the most compassionate and empathetic character in the movie. Kendrick and Clooney are superb, and the script by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner based on Walter Kim’s novel paint a portrait of believable, complex, and likeable characters. The movie is a pleasure.