Up in the Air: Moderately Enjoyable Dramedy

"Up in the Air" is an above-average but still only moderately enjoyable dramedy about love among the well-educated professional set. Jason Reitman, in his follow-up to the more energetic and vastly better "Juno," directs in a fairly pedestrian and almost too grown-up way. It seems like the 32-year-old Reitman is imitating the filmmaking style of his father, the ultra-mainstream Ivan Reitman. I hope in his next film, Jason goes back to being Jason. "Up in the Air" feels like Reitman is auditioning to direct the next season of "Desperate Housewives." He is far too talented for that gig.

George Clooney gives an adequate performance as a highly paid consultant who happily spends 340 days out of the year on the road. His job is unusual. He visits his clients whenever they have to make layoffs. Clooney's character, Ryan, delivers the bad news to the employees. His new coworker, Natalie, is a cocky, overly ambitious youngster just out of college. Middle-aged Ryan is charged with taking the young pup out on the road to show her the ropes. Newcomer Anna Kendrick (Jessica in the two "Twilight" movies) does a nice job satirizing young Republican over-achievers.

I was a little scared that Ryan and Natalie were going to develop a May-December romance, but Ryan's romantic and erotic energy is directed solely toward a third character, the female version of Ryan, played by Vera Farmiga, who nearly steals the movie from Clooney. The romance between these two becomes the central focus of the last third of the movie, and all the typical bromides of the romantic-comedy genre start to surface. Handsome playboy makes fun of marriage and can get any woman he wants, but slowly but surely he comes to see the charms of wedded bliss when he finally meets the girl of his dreams.

Happily, the film throws a curve ball in the last 10 minutes that to some degree upends romantic-comedy conventions. But this unusually dark turn isn't enough to remove the smell of overly mainstream filmmaking. Ultimately "Up in the Air" is a mainstream confection for middle-aged folks who were into confections like "Twilight" when they were young. Those without much of a sweet tooth will probably be unmoved.

The topical issue of layoffs is explored with some seriousness. Many of the layoff scenes are disturbing, with some fiftysomethings coming truly unglued. And most of these sequences are not played for laughs. But for the most part it felt like a gimmick, addressing an ultra-timely issue in hopes that it would lead to chatter about the movie on "Today" and "The View."