Rating: 

The Info

Directed by: Mike Newell
Written by: Darcy Frey, Glen Charles & Les Charles
Starring: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie
Produced by: Art Linson

The Nutshell

The arrival of a new hot-shot air-traffic controller makes the former #1 man's life turn upside-down.

The Review

    Men have ruled the world for centuries, probably since the very beginning of civilization. With the exception of certain key tribes, men have always been dominant over women, mostly thanks to their larger body size. In the 1990s, Western society has thankfully realized that men and women are equals, and our civilization has been taking steps to remedy the imbalances of the past. There is still a long way to go (there have still been no female Presidents and women still make less than men in equal jobs) but progress is being made. Hollywood has unfortunately lagged behind the rest of the world in catching up. While each year contains several outstanding performances by women, the majority of good roles are still written for men. This problem was highlighted in one of the Academy Award issues of Entertainment Weekly two years ago when the magazine simply couldn't choose five worthy female performances for the Best Actress in a Leading Role category. Now, thanks to director Mike Newell and writers Glen and Les Charles, Pushing Tin pushes that mentality back a few giant steps. This film is so stereotypically male that it should insult any woman who sees it. How such a great group of actors could have signed on to such a script is bewildering.

    The film opens with much promise. A group of air-traffic controllers led by Nick "The Zone" Falzone (Cusack) spend every day landing aeroplanes in New York, the city with the continent's busiest airspace. Newell spends the first twenty minutes of the film showing us how stressful the job is. A host of quirky characters stare unblinking at their "scope", constantly toggling a handheld remote and issuing course changes to landing aircraft. Each controller deals with the pressure in a different way (one squeezes a stress toy constantly). A group of children being led through on a tour get a scare when two aircraft almost collide, and one particular little brainiac highlights the stress of the job by mentioning the job's high suicide rates. This opening is well-written, funny, and introduces us to a delightful group of stressed out employees who live on the edge, responsible for the lives of thousands of people each day. Unfortunately, this is where the film becomes insulting.

    The lives of Falzone and his crew are changed when one of the nation's best controllers, Russell Bell (Thornton) is hired. His strange demeanour and anti-social behaviour puts Falzone's hackles up, which starts a long "mine are bigger than yours" male contest. Falzone, who up to this point in the film is shown in a protagonist's light, becomes an immature spoil-sport, who can't let anyone else be the king of the castle. The plausibility of the film slips quickly away as at one point, Bell and Falzone wrestle on the ground over a feather while an aeroplane heads toward certain doom. Falzone, who has a stable but quiet marriage to Connie (Blanchett) almost throws it all away with Russell's wife Mary (Jolie). The kicker is that in the tense moment when Falzone admits everything to Bell, Bell says it's okay. To paraphrase what he says, "We have beautiful wives, and we have to expect other men to be interested in them, and thus these things will happen. It is the burden we must carry by having such beautiful wives." What?! Their wives are beautiful, thus it is obvious that at some point they will fool around with other men? Falzone agrees with this and all is well between the two men. I haven't heard anything so insulting to women in years. It would be different if the characters were jerks, like Jason Patrick's Cary in Neil LaBute's Your Friends & Neighbors. The insufferable ending of the film is the biggest insult as the women forgive their men for everything and everyone lives happily ever after.

    There is a lot of acting talent wasted here. John Cusack who excels at playing hip, likeable guys (Grosse Pointe Blank) adds another one to his resume here. Even when destroying his marriage, Falzone gives off an air of coolness. Billy Bob Thornton pulls off yet another weirdo, with Russell Bell fitting somewhere in between the dimness of Karl Childers (Sling Blade) and the relative normalcy of Dan Truman (Armageddon). Angelina Jolie is believable as an alcoholic Southerner while Cate Blanchett's talents are completely wasted as Connie. In fitting with the film's slant on gender issues, the two actresses' roles are much smaller than those of the men. This film is Mike Newell's salute to men, and to how conceited men like to view the world. If the Charles' had stuck to writing a story about bizarre air-traffic controllers, the film's first twenty minutes hint at what could have been a hit. By choosing their implausible tale of two men who can't handle both being King of the Mountain, they created the most insulting film of the year.

Copyright - Tim Chandler

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