Quite a few people have blamed this film for being too slow yet I feel that the contrast between the hectic life of Air Traffic controllers and the positively pedestrian-in-comparison outside world is what drives this film. You find two different men, with different lives and personalities, compete to be the best in a hard job. And though the sheer excitement of their plane co-ordinating is hard to beat I personally found the way they reacted outside of that job to be the more fascinating. Cusack plays the cool Nick Falzone who eats stress for breakfast and is known as the best in the business. Though he handles the job with seemless ease his life outside revolves around driving fast, talking fast and generally trying to recapture the buzz of it all. Thornton on the other hand plays new-guy-in-town Russell Bell who doesn't know the meaning of stress and shatters Falzone's cosy little world when his seemingly insane methods produce better results than his illustrious comrade.
As has been mentioned before the constant game of one-upmanship that these two men indulge in throughout the film is the central theme and what it does to their lives and loves is quite graphic. Blanchett and Jolie are wasted for sure but they do what little they have well enough and that's all that is required in this testosterone-packed non-action film. The tense feeling I had in my stomach all the way through made it all the more exciting and I loved the battles the two protagonists engaged in, whether the reasons behind them were real or imagined. Great viewing, but not before a plane trip. |
