Up in the Air (R) ★★★½

After breaking out two years ago with the teen pregnancy comedy Juno, writer-director Jason Reitman trains his keen, acerbic eye on the modern business traveler in Up in the Air, a bittersweet comedy about one man's turbulent journey of self-discovery and redemption.

George Clooney stars as Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizer (he fires people for a living, essentially) and seasoned road warrior whose aversion to real human connection is reflected in his mammoth stockpile of frequent flyer miles, the fruits of a job that calls for 300-plus days spent away from the office. Thoroughly content with a life spent in hotel bars and airport lounges, Ryan begins to slowly unravel when he's tasked with mentoring Natalie (Anna Kendrick), a fresh-faced recent graduate with a bold set of ideas for transforming the business of firing people — ideas that threaten both Ryan's untethered existence and his budding relationship with Alex (Vera Farmiga), a fellow corporate nomad whose penchant for low-effort, commitment-free relationships mirrors his own.

Enchanted by visions of a perpetual booty call, replete with racy Blackberry messages and romantic trysts arranged via Outlook, Ryan begins to suspect he might have found his soulmate in Alex. Inconveniencing his idealized scenario, however, is his travel partner Natalie, a probing, perceptive gal who proves a far more worthy adversary than he initially anticipated. As Ryan exposes Natalie's real-world inexperience and naivety in a series of mildly disastrous business meetings, she in turn refutes his resolutely isolationist approach to love and relationships. Soon, their mutual resentment gives way to a father-daughter dynamic characterized by genuine, albeit guarded, affection. As his carefully crafted barriers steadily erode, Ryan's thoughts increasingly turn to Alex, and he begins to contemplate the previously unthinkable prospect of putting down actual roots.

Corporate downsizing, emotional detachment and the dehumanizing effects of modern technology aren't exactly the most lighthearted of topics, but Up in the Air avoids wallowing in dour Death of a Salesman territory with the help of Reitman's sharp, perceptive wit and a handful of lively cameos from comic heavyweights like Danny McBride, Zach Galifianakis and J.K. Simmons. In fact, the whole affair makes for a surprisingly uplifting experience, in a ''saddest happy ending'' kind of way. Though the latter half of the film is hampered by structural deficiencies and a pair of melodramatic, sadly predictable twists that move the plot forward but diminish its overall impact, it still qualifies as one of the top films of the year and Reitman's best work to date. Consider Up in the Air a surefire Oscar contender.

Hollywood.com rated this film 3 1/2 stars.