Release Date: March 21, 2003
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate, Mark Ruffalo, Mike Myers, Kelly Preston, Candice Bergen
Directed by: Bruno Barreto
Written by: Eric Wald
Distributed by: Miramax Films
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (language, sexual references)
Gwyneth Paltrow has appeared almost exclusively in light-hearted films since 1999’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, and after the dull and moronic View From the Top, it’s become even more of a mystery as to why she's chosen this career path. There’s no question that she’s a highly capable actress, so what reason could she possibly have to star in films like Shallow Hal and Bounce when someone less prestigious could pull off those roles just as sufficiently? View From the Top is a new low, however, providing a surplus of stale material that she, or any other respectable actress, would normally stay far away from.
Paltrow plays Donna Jenson, a young woman who is inspired to make the best of her life after her high school sweetheart dumps her. For whatever reason, she then decides that her dream is to be an international flight attendant and begins training for a small California airline. There, Donna meets Christine (Chirstina Applegate) and Sherry (Kelly Preston), and her eventual love interest, Ted (Mark Ruffalo). Together, the three ladies try their luck with Royal Airlines (whose training program is run by a lazy-eyed character played by Mike Myers) and Donna soon faces betrayal and a romantic dilemma.
Clearly, the point of the movie is to teach the old lesson of staying true to your life's dreams, which is all nice and good, but it’s hard to that message in View From the Top seriously. In fact, it’s tough to be inspired by any story of a clumsy, skittish woman whose greatest ambition is to be a flight attendant. No offense to the fine men and women who are working in the flight service industry, but this isn’t exactly first-rate story material. Even if the film had its own twist for the romantic comedy genre, you wouldn't know it, because the humor falls woefully short.
There’s almost nothing about View From the Top that feels fresh, and though that’s unfortunately common of the vast majority of romantic comedies, it especially hurts this movie. Granted, the flight attendant-in-training premise has never been used before, but not until the third act is there a reason to care about Paltrow’s character and whether or not she will live happily ever after. The answer to that is predictable, of course, and that, combined with the overwhelmingly preposterous plot, means this movie is hardly worth your time.
One or two personalities help this comedy feel more like the satire that director Bruno Barreto and writer Eric Wald seem to have been trying for, but again, the lack of substance undermines any of the film's positive aspects. On the bright side, Paltrow achieves success in her incredibly simple role with effortless charm, and her inept costar Mark Ruffalo actually succeeds as one of the few male romantic interests in movie history who doesn’t have a single character flaw. Mike Myers, Candice Bergen, and Christina Applegate, however, are all equally unsatisfying. Myers is surprisingly unfunny in his bit role, while Candice Bergen and Christina Applegate give the impression that they had nothing better to do than show up on the set and read a few pages of dialogue (which, on second thought, may have been true).
When all is said and done, very little in View From the Top is worth taking seriously. Luckily for Gwyneth Paltrow, it will take more than a forgettable movie like this to tarnish her career.
-- Andy Zientek (zfilm@earthlink.net)