Starring George Clooney in the lead role and directed by Juno’s Jason Reitman -  the comedy drama Up in the Air is based on the novel by Walter Kirn and tells the story of a corporate downsizing expert who happily lives his life moving from job to job, sleeping in endless hotels and racking up countless air miles in the process.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) makes his living firing people. Wherever and whenever companies need someone to come in and deliver the bad news of retrenchment to a bunch of bewildered employees, then Bingham is their guy.

He is perfectly suited to bear the anguish, hostility and despair of those he has just let go and has even developed a false compassionate faith with which to best deal with it.

And while the endless journeying from place to place in order to do their jobs would get some people down, Bingham considers his lifestyle to be ideal.

However, Bingham soon finds all this threatened when his boss back at head office hires upwardly ambitious young executive Natalie (Vera Farmiga) who has developed a method of video conferencing that will allow for the termination of employees without anyone ever needing to leave the office again.

Determined to stand his ground and show the new girl the error of her logic, Ryan takes her on one of his cross country firing expeditions, and just as she starts to realize the disheartening realities of her profession, he begins to see the drawbacks of his way of life.