The “Meatballs” heir finally gets it right: “Up in the Air”

It’s one of the most trite sayings in the history of the English language, and if it weren’t so overused – yes, even by me – I’d go look it up to see how it all began. But hell, I’ll just say it anyway: The third time is a charm for director Jason Reitman.

You may recall how much I grimaced at the drooling over “Juno” a couple of years ago. Come on … it was OK, but just that: Oh. Kay. Don’t get carried away by all the too-cute quips and uber-precociousness of Ellen Page (whom I’m actually fond of, by the way). Just … no. For my money, Reitman’s first major feature, “Thank You For Smoking,” was more impressive. True, I thought it could have been even more biting, but I applauded the effort. “Juno” was a decent follow-up, but the lovefest became downright sickening.

In a perfect world, “Up in the Air” gets that adulation and more, since it’s not only a well-told story with real people – in some cases, literally real people – but also the perfect movie for these times. How’s that for hyperbole?

Our story follows the alone-but-not-lonely Ryan Bingham (George “From Dusk Till Dawn” Clooney), a guy who makes his living by flying around the country and firing people. The work allows him to rack up an astonishing number of miles, points, etc., and he’s quite comfortable living on the road, with all the routines and perks of die-hard business travelers. Clearly he never gets stuck in the middle seat in front of the crapper, where he finds the flight ran out of snack boxes 10 rows ago.

This happy existence is disrupted by two women. The first (Vera Farmiga) is a another frequent flier turned on by his “accomplishments” as a road warrior. They enjoy a liaison and decide to try it again and again. The second (Anna Kendrick) is a new employee at his company who wants to change the business by firing people via the Internet. Not good for a guy who wants to be in the air as much as possible. Before the company commits, though, the kid joins the old guy on a swing through a few cities to see how this cold-hearted business actually goes down.

So yeah, you can say this is a pretty timely movie. Apparently the back story is that Reitman wanted to make it several years ago but got caught up in the other two movies. Good luck, that. In this era of downsizing, this theme is pretty powerful, especially in a can-you-top-this way: You think outsourcing the layoff process is sadistic? Just wait until you get the news via webcam! Yow.

(Sidebar: Some people who are shown being fired early on are non-actors who recently were fired from their real jobs. Yep ... real anger and despair there.)

As this tale unfolds, we follow our hero’s would-be romance to his hometown for a sister’s wedding. So we have a guy normally focused on making connections in airports now trying to do the same with real people – his estranged family and his new paramour. As you might guess in this happy day and age, the results are mixed at best.

Because of his nature and charm, Clooney doesn’t have to do any heavy lifting. Even so, he’s a great choice for the role and executes as expected. Farmiga, who I thought was only OK in “The Departed,” is better here, playing her part as Clooney’s equal in frequent flying and whirlwind romance very well. But the real find may be Kendrick, whom I had never seen before but I now see is in those “Twilight” movies. Nice move by her to get this role, and her evolution as a character who has more depth that you initially thought is pulled off perfectly.

Other pros show up in smaller roles, from Jason Bateman to Sam Elliott to J.K. Simmons to Melanie Lynskey to Danny McBride. But the lead trio are the money performances, held together nicely by Reitman’s direction. I got a whiff of a couple of other directors at times, like Wes Anderson and Darren Aronofsky, but you can do worse than to borrow from those guys.

And really, Reitman laid the groundwork for “Up in the Air” – and more to the point, a conflicted and flawed protagonist who nevertheless oozes charm – with his first two movies. As I said up top, this is where he pulls it together, and this might be the best movie I’ve seen this year. But only because I missed “G.I. Joe.”