I don’t do spoilers, but it’s impossible for me to talk about Up In The Air without mentioning that it’s a very depressing movie. It’s a very good movie. It’s a very grown up movie, which isn’t usually my thing. But yeah, it’s depressing.

George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a man who flies around the country to meet with individuals and fire them. He spends most of the year flying, and is hardly ever “home”. He meets a kindred spirit of sorts. Life is fun. But when the firm he works for starts implementing a new teleconference style of firing people, he is grounded, literally and metaphorically. So he takes the young whiz kid and instigator of the technological advancement with him on his travels. Wake up calls all around.

Let me say that George Clooney is the man. Yeah, he’s a stud I guess, but he’s a really good actor, and a very charismatic leading man. This might be the “oldest” I’ve ever seen him. He’s not getting any younger. But he still has it, and in Hollywood, older men become distinguished, not has-beens, so he’ll be fine. But he definitely deserves all the praise he’s been getting for his work here.

The kindred spirit Clooney meets is Alex, played wonderfully by the beautiful and awesome really, Vera Farmiga. She is so good here. So…in control. I know it’s a character she’s playing, but Farmiga handles the role perfectly. I haven’t seen everything she’s been in, but I’ve loved her in everything I have seen her in. No exception here.

The new up and comer here is played by Anna Kendrick, best known as Jessica in the Twilight movies. She really holds her own against Clooney. She does a really great job, and I can totally see her really making a name for herself.

Up In The Air also has a couple of cast members from director Jason Reitman’s big hit JUNO, Jason Bateman and JK Simmons. Both are excellent in smaller roles here. Danny McBride has a small role here, too, but it doesn’t really give him the chance to shine in typical McBride style.

Director Jason Reitman co-wrote the screenplay with Sheldon Turner, adapting the book by Walter Kim. I have to admit, though it’s not at all the kind of book I usually read, I’m curious about it. I think everybody who sees this movie will like it. I almost left it for a rental, and that’s fine. But I think Up In The Air is fine theatrical entertainment.