Up In The Air (15) ★★★★ Stars: George Clooney, Anna Kendrick, Vera Farmiga, Melanie Lynskey, Danny McBride, Jason Bateman. 109 mins

His job in Jason Reitman’s Up In The Air is to take away the jobs of others. Ryan Bingham (Clooney) earns his living by flying around America, collecting notches on his bedpost, making total strangers redundant because their bosses are too chicken to do it themselves.

Losing your job doesn’t sound much of a basis for a comedy but Reitman, co-writing the script with Sheldon Turner, has followed up the promise he showed with Juno and Thank You For Smoking with a film that flies neatly back and forth between comedy and tragedy with all the skill of a seasoned airline pilot.

Like a commercial salesman, Bingham spends most of his life on the road – or up in the air as he travels by plane across the US in search of people to sack.

He has to face the tears and wrath of those losing their jobs, along with the occasional suicide threat.

The closest he gets to personal commitment is begrudgingly agreeing to a request from his sister (Melanie Lynskey) and her fiance Jim (Danny McBride) to take pictures of a cardboard cutout of the happy couple in front of various locations.

Bingham himself faces being out of work or office-bound when efficiency expert Natalie (Anna Kendrick, from the Twilight Saga movies) convinces their boss (Justin Bateman) that terminations should be conducted through video conferencing, thus saving all that money spent on travel.

First, Natalie has to prove her scheme’s worth and is sent off with Bingham to try it out. There is romance, of the stopover variety, for Bingham not with Natalie but a fellow regular flyer Alex (Vera Farmiga), who turns out not to be quite what he expected.

Rarely has Clooney’s casual charm and high likeability factor been harnessed to such good effect. He’s spot-on as a man whose aim in life is to collect enough air miles to join an elite club of frequent flyers.

Farmiga is sexy and intelligent as Alex, while Kendrick super-cool and capable as the young pretender to his terminator’s job.

Awards all round are inevitable.

Perhaps even an Oscar for Clooney at long last.