Movie Review: View from the Top

View from the Top (2003) 

Directed by Bruno Barreto 

Written by Eric Wald

Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate, Mark Ruffalo, Candice Bergen, Joshua Malina, Kelly Preston, Rob Lowe, Mike Myers

Release Date March 21st, 2003 

Published March 21st, 2003 

Of the many odd ripples from our country's greatest tragedy, none seems less important than it's effects on Hollywood movies. It's an effect still felt today, as films that were made around the time of 9/11 finally reach theaters. One of the films shelved after 9/11 was the flight attendant comedy View From The Top. One is left to wonder what kind of movie View was when it was conceived and what it became after the tragedy. Suddenly jokes involving air travel simply aren't funny and as a filmmaker, you have sensitivities to care about that never existed before. It must have been more excruciating for such a light comedy to have that mantle to bear, and it's one that likely ruined any chance the film had of being a hit.

View From The Top stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Donna Jensen, the daughter of a Vegas go-go dancer and an alcoholic father. Donna, living in a trailer with her well-past-her-prime mom, desperately wants out of the trailer and thinks she has a way with a new boyfriend. Unfortunately like everything else in her life, the boyfriend (played in cameo by Buffy's Marc Blucas) let's her down and dumps her in a birthday card. Nevertheless, Donna's pluckiness and spirit lead her to another opportunity to better herself. After seeing a woman on TV talk about the wonders of being a flight attendant, Donna sets out to travel the world. Of course at first, she has to settle for the Laughlin to Fresno route of an economy airline that specializes in drunk gamblers. Hey, everyone has to start somewhere.

Along the way, Donna makes friends with her flight attendant mentor (Kelly Preston) and another trainee (Christina Applegate). She also makes a new love connection with a struggling law student played by Mark Ruffalo. Donna doesn't have time for a relationship though as she and her friends fight their way into another airline, the high class Royalty airlines. Here, Donna actually meets the woman who inspired her to become a flight attendant (Candace Bergen). In addition, Donna becomes the star pupil of a flight attendant teacher played by Mike Myers.

Though Donna seems destined for the big time, international first class to Paris, she somehow fails and ends up doing commuter flights out of Cleveland. It's not all bad though as while stationed in Cleveland she reunites with the law student and they begin a tentative romance. However, it is then that Donna does get her international route and must choose between her career and personal life.

On the surface, View From The Top seems pretty straightforward, but upon watching you see it become quite confused. Director Bruno Barreto never settles on a tone for the film. Early scenes of Paltrow's Donna living in squalor seem like a Jerry Springer satire. Then as Donna becomes more sophisticated and grown up, something Paltrow is so good at projecting, she is confronted by characters that seem to be in entirely different films.

While somewhere toward the middle of the film, Paltrow and Candace Bergen seem to channel the elegant humor of an Audrey Hepburn movie, Mike Myers is doing Jerry Lewis and Christina Applegate seems a refugee from the aforementioned Springer show. Ruffalo seems to fit somewhere in the middle while seeming capable of fitting either tone if given proper direction.

Again, I wonder how much the film changed after 9/11. It was always a comedy but how much of the humor or even the story was forced to change for the sake of sensitivity. Is it possible that a more coherent version of the film existed before? I guess we will never know. As it is, View From The Top is yet another line on Gwyneth Paltrow's resume. While not great, it does note her amazing range. If given the chance I'm sure she could have made one of the two movies in View From The Top work.