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04/14/03

1 hr. 27 mins.
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Ruffalo, Christina Applegate, Mike Myers, Candice Bergen, Kelly Preston
Directed by: Bruno Barreto

Rating: ** stars (out of 4 stars)

One might have trouble imaging what Brazilian filmmaker Bruno Barreto (“Bossa Nova”) saw in helming this kooky but colorless corroding comedy. In the lightweight and disposable cutesy offering View From the Top, Barreto manages to hammer together this pared-down laugher with an irreverent look at flight attendants and their high-flying dreams. Irritatingly breezy and silly-minded, this View offers nothing unique in the satire of nudging the Barbie doll image of perfect-looking flight attendants and their air-bound profession. The slapstick element is as tasty as two-day old stale airline cuisine and just as imaginative. With material so slight and inconsequential, you would think that this fluff piece would have a field day mocking the stuffing out of the airline industry and the anorexic-looking sky divas that service the high mile passengers. But with flighty characterizations that come and go at random plus the transparent subplots that add to the monotony of the proceedings, View From the Top never matches the zaniness it wants to celebrate with a warm-hearted lunacy. In short, this fuel-injected ruse leaves its inherent frothy perkiness on the runway.

Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow decides to let her hair down by lending her presence to this giddy albeit clueless fable about protagonist Donna Jensen, a Nevada-based small-town trailer park girl looking to pursue her ideal career as a flight attendant. Assisting the enthusiastic Donna in her determination to fly in the friendly skies is mentor and author Sally Weston (Candice Bergen), the force behind the motivational read “My Life in the Sky”. Along the way, Donna meets and befriends a couple of fellow wannabe “cloud-flying cuties” (Kelly Preston and Christina Applegate). Together, they struggle to make ends meet for the mediocre outfit Sierra Airlines. When the company’s motto is “Big hair, short skirts and service with a smile” then you know that there must be another comparable employer out there that doesn’t cater to tacky slogans yet takes its craft seriously. The trio realizes that they need to escape the pointless wind-and-grind of their current rut and hope to achieve major success with the preferred and impressive Royalty Airlines-their desired destination.

Before Donna and her sidekicks can bask in the glow of their upscale competitor at Royalty Airlines, they must deal with the foolishness that persists at their present working venue. First, the gals must endure the insufferable antics of their cross-eyed and pain-in-the-neck instructor/nemesis (Mike Myers in an over-the-top mode milking this lame joke to death). Secondly, the gals are in a constant stress-related fury regarding the perplexing exams that the airline administers. As if this isn’t enough, Donna finds her attraction to a handsome Cleveland law student Ted (Mark Ruffalo from You Can Count On Me) too strong to ignore. However, her love for the hopeful legal eagle hunk (who by the way is a former flame of hers) cannot throw her off track as she insists on following her path to that professional plateau which presents the all-important philosophical question: coffee, tea or milk?

This film’s screenplay comes from the numbing mind of writer Eric Wald. On one hand, you want the wackiness to work its magic therefore transforming Wald’s doltish script into something worth contemplating regarding the so-called manufactured outrageousness. But with Barreto’s turgid direction and the stale plot devices that never elevate beyond its stagnant form, the movie loses whatever sweetness and gentle ribaldry it had going for it in the first place. Uneven in its presentation, View From the Top has a strange retro-feel about it that screams the early 1980’s (for proof, witness the soundtrack shamelessly cluttered with Cyndi Lauper and Bon Jovi tunes) although the film is supposed to be a contemporary tale involving today’s sensibilities.

The movie doesn’t know when to be appropriately nostalgic or naughty in reference to its tongue-in-cheek tone. When the film considers itself serviceable, it aimlessly dabbles in the arbitrary and bubble-headed notion of parading around bikini-clad babes and sporting throwaway cameos that’s supposed to instill some cheeky flavor in an otherwise flavorless, jittery comedy. The thought of featuring a dependable and sophisticated actress such as Paltrow in a flaky yet feeble gagfest might have been an intentional blasphemous move designed to ensure some good-natured gimmickry in the process. The problem remains that Paltrow isn’t very convincing or winning as a down-in-your-luck harried heroine that rises to the ranks of her high expectations. Her romantic on-screen chemistry with Ruffalo is a physical and emotional mismatch that nary registers anything substantive or interesting. And the overall cartoonish high jinks concerning the film’s momentum is about as hilarious as a plunging plane crashing into an unseen hillside.

For what it’s worth, View From the Top is relentlessly derivative and never seems to have any concrete fun with its incoherent nuttiness. There have been numerous references made from countless comedians that enjoy combing for funny anecdotes involving the airline scene. It’s too bad that the moviemakers behind this sporadic dud couldn’t hire them to instill some much- needed mirth about their riotous experiences in this uninspired and predictable foray.

No need to fasten your seatbelts whatsoever as this particular plane trip is missing its creative turbulence.