Academy Awards Nominee: Up in the Air

Writer-director Jason Reitman says he created this film with George Clooney in mind - and the 48-year-old actor turns in one of the best performances of his career as corporate hitman Ryan Bingham, who is paid to fly across America to fire people. Clooney's character relishes his job, spending 322 days a year "up in the air" while getting ever closer to reaching a magical 10 million miles on his frequent-flyer card.

Clooney also shares the screen with Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, both of whom are superb. Kendrick, best known for her role as schoolgirl Jessica Stanley in the vampire film saga Twilight, plays geeky graduate go-getter Natalie Keener who wants to cut costs further by firing employees over the internet. Farmiga plays businesswoman Alex Goran, a fellow frequent-flyer who clicks with Bingham because she, too, is seeking no-strings-attached sex.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:Ian Nathan, Empire: "While Clooney gets the lines, the trajectory of the plot, the ravishing Farmiga has a range of subtle glances, ironic smiles and deft shrugs that suggest a world of emotion held sternly at bay." (Verdict: five out of five stars)

Richard Corliss, Time magazine: "Clooney [gives] the sharpest, most nuanced performance of his career. He gets inside Ryan because, as he has acknowledged, this is a portrait of a character not far from his own: a travelling man with scores of women in his past, riding high on the confidence that people will buy anything he pitches - even a savoury comedy-drama with a tart aftertaste. He and Reitman could close the sale on Oscar night."

Dave Calhoun, Time Out: "For all its superficial topicality, Up in the Air mostly feels old-fashioned, nostalgic even, in its fond lament for a pre-9/11 world of travel. There are no security scares in this world. Its fetishisation of the rituals of flying is near-pornographic, with check-in girls substituting for bedfellows and frequent-flyer cards for sex toys. Bingham's winning of millions of air miles come across as notches on his bed post. He's the Warren Beatty of interstate business travel." (Verdict: three out of five stars)

'Up in the Air' is out on general release in the UK. ·