I was in London a while back, and opposite me on the Underground was a poster for Nespresso, a coffee product advertised by George Clooney. A father was using it as a lesson to his children about the evils of advertising, saying that Clooney was pimping caffeine for money, which is a Bad Thing. I restrained myself from talking about how Clooney uses the money from adverts to fund ventures such as Syriana and Good Night and Good Luck, two films of a leftward persuasion that could be viewed as advertising of the decent kind.

Anyway, Clooney’s here again — this time to entertain — with Up In The Air, a superb comedy drama directed by Jason Reitman (known also for Juno), co-scripted by Reitman and Sheldon Turner. George plays a man who spends his life travelling from airport to airport, stopping off to make people redundant at whatever business is going down the tubes in the vicinity. For most people that would seem to be an empty existence, but George’s character loves his anonymous life. Or does, until he meets a woman who seems to share his vacuous value system. Naturally, and gradually, he falls for her.

It’s class from the word go, with people who really have lost their jobs playing people who do likewise, adding it the same kind of authenticity that School of Rock benefits from by having young musicians instead of actors playing the kids. George’s impossible good looks and smooth upbeat manner are an alien contrast to their mere mortal ways.

Not only that, but George really does believe he’s got it made. And he wants you to know it. When he’s not sacking people, he’s got a sideline in motivational speaking, and holds forth on the value of a life with minimal attachments – the only baggage he wants is a stylish rucksack, and even that’s replaceable.

George’s bubble bursts when the company he works for hires a smart young woman who realises that people can be fired online rather than in person. The savings on plane flights would be enormous, and people would get to spend more time at home with their loved ones. Exactly not what George wants: nothing horrifies him more than the idea of commitment.

Travelling with the digital evangelist gradually brings home to George that you can’t live without people, and he invites the vapid woman he copped off with to accompany him to his sister’s wedding. He wants more than that – and discovers that she’s married, with kids, and wants nothing to do with the man she views the same way he perceives his conquests on the road. Ouch.

Well judged in every respect, this is a film I’ll be picking up on DVD and sure to learn more from with every viewing. At one level it’s a thoroughly modern comedy attuned to today’s economy and technology. But it’s also timeless, in the tradition of classics like the Howard Hawks gem His Girl Friday. Put Clooney back in time and he’d stand in for Cary Grant’s role just fine, and vice versa.

Every now and then a film appears which catches the zeitgeist in a way that couldn’t be planned. It’s arguable that Clooney has already been in one such film with Michael Clayton, an exploration of corporate wrongdoing that at heart is about one man learning to do the right thing. And at its core, that’s what Up In The Air is too, regardless of its comedy aspect. The Full Monty is another example, focused on life for those made redundant, but like Up In The Air treating the subject with a light touch – a reminder that comedy is serious business.