View From the Top

(Bruno Barreto, USA, 2003)

There are moments at the cinema when Australian viewers are reminded, with a jolt, that they are definitely not American.

In the fluffy romantic comedy View From the Top, the only plot intrigue worth mentioning centres on Christine (Christina Applegate), the best friend of plucky Donna (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is training to be an air hostess.

The film's unsubtle sign that Christine is an evil, scheming, manipulative bitch comes when she empties her handbag: in her spare moments, she pockets the free soaps, trinkets and alcoholic shots that come her way on the job.

In a country where a great many people take enormous delight in tram fare evasion, it is hard to take this moral crucible of the film seriously. But director Bruno Barreto, who has seen far better days (like Carried Away, 1996), hammers it relentlessly to the end.

It is hard to imagine that anybody ever really believed in this dull-as-dishwater project. Donna is an impossibly sweet, innocent heroine who comes complete with a guardian angel mother-figure (Candice Bergen) and the blandest boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo, a gifted actor completely wasted) who has ever lounged around the edges of a chick-flick.

It's all live-your-dream stuff, delivered at a very low level of intensity. Donna keeps wondering how to square love and career, and her eventual resolution of this problem will surprise no one.

View From the Top has only a few redeeming grace notes, such as a lively performance from Mike Myers as a frustrated teacher, and some spot-on jokes about the rituals of plane travel. Plus an out-take during the final credits where the cast boogies to "We Are Family", re-fitted with lyrics instructing passengers on how to buckle their seat belt and wear their safety masks.

© Adrian Martin August 2003