A View From the Top Review
by Jonathan F. Richards (moviecritic AT prodigy DOT net)March 25th, 2003
IN THE DARK/Jonathan Richards
VIEW FROM THE TOP
Directed by Bruno Barreto
PG-13, 87 minutes
In the great tradition of movies like "Room at the Top", "View From the Bridge", and "A Room with a View", Miramax’s new release has the words "view" and "top" in its title. Otherwise, this mild, low-wattage comedy has very little going for it. Even the presence of Gwyneth Paltrow and neo-Brando heartthrob Mark Ruffalo ("You Can Count on Me") and solid pros like Mike Myers and Candice Bergen is no help; these talents only serve to underline the puzzling pointlessness of the picture.
"View from the Top" was shot in early 2001, when Paltrow was just two years removed from her Oscar, and Miramax claims to have shelved it out of sensitivity to the timing of an airline comedy in the wake of 9/11. Maybe, or maybe not. Not every script can be "Shakespeare in Love". But what could possibly have attracted the lovely and talented Gwyneth to the forlorn, dated irrelevance of this screenplay about a small-town girl who dreams of becoming a stewardess in first class on the international routes of a major airline? The script is the debut work of one Eric Wald, who developed it as a class project in UCLA'S MFA screenwriting program. He turns out some laughs, but barely enough for a gentleman's C.
Donna Jensen (Paltrow) is not a girl who naturally dreams large. She's contentedly selling luggage in a department store, and planning to marry her high school sweetheart and co-worker, when he tells her he's dumping her for someone else. Here the script spreads its wit cards on the table: "Is it Linda in lawn chairs?" the stricken Donna asks. "No," he says, "Brenda in barbecue."
But the Lord works in mysterious ways, and never closes a door but He opens a window, as you may have heard. A vision appears to Donna, in the form of a talk show guest on TV in the bar where she is moping. It is Sally Weston (Bergen), best-selling author of an inspirational flight attendant memoir. Before you can say "coffee, tea, or milk?", Donna has left the luggage department and donned the uniform of Sierra Airlines, a Fresno-based puddle-jumper whose motto is "Big hair, short skirts, and service with a smile."
She's never been on a plane before, and on her first flight runs down the aisle screaming "We're going to crash!" But Donna is clearly destined for bigger routes. With Sierra colleagues Sherry (Kelly Preston) and Christine (Christina Applegate) she heads off to the Royal Airlines training program. En route she meets Ted (Ruffalo), a cute law-school dropout who, inspired by her work ethic, drops back in to law school and pitches her some sincere woo.
There are a few setbacks, but in a movie like this you can't keep a good girl down. What you can do, of course, is skewer her on the prongs of that old dilemma, career or true love. Can a small-town girl who has learned to dream of "international, Paris, first class" be content to give it all up for marriage to a Cleveland lawyer whose family wears matching sweaters at Christmastime?
There is something suspiciously out of kilter about this movie. You get the feeling everyone here is involved because he or she owes a favor to someone. The director is the Brasilian Bruno Barreto, who has scaled greater heights with movies like "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands" and "Four Days in September". Paltrow is said to have gotten $10 million for this, and God knows I would play Monica Lewinsky for that kind of money, but Gwyneth has an Oscar. Mike Myers can't need the money, and he has to work too hard for his scattered laughs. "The West Wing" sent Rob Lowe and his replacement, Joshua Malina, to do what they could, and Lowe supplies a few minutes of charm before wisely taking a powder, while Malina sticks around as the gay friend. Preston takes early retirement, and Applegate stays in for purposes of betrayal, and to engage in an unfunny catfight with Paltrow. Ruffalo looks soft and wistful, as if wondering how his career took this turn. Or maybe he's wondering what the time frame of this story is – it feels and dresses like the Seventies, has a soundtrack from the Eighties, and throws in a reference to Dr. Phil to bring us up to date.
The denouement turns on the familiar scene where one character makes an impassioned statement of true feelings to somebody who couldn't care less, but is serendipitously overheard by the person to whom it means everything. If nothing else, this shows that the writer did his research. To fill up some time, they throw in a montage of Paltrow parading through Paris in a succession of designer fashions. Then, with nothing left to do and the clock still under an hour and a half, the picture reaches into the vaults for another tried-and-true idea, out-takes over the closing credits, and reassures us that not much of quality was left on the cutting-room floor.
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