Les Aiguilleurs

Here's 1999's winner for the film least likely to be shown during an overseas flight. Cusack stars as a hotshot air traffic controller whose top dog status is threatened by the arrival of the equally gifted but enigmatic Billy Bob Thornton. Cusack's mounting rivalry with the inscrutable Thornton eventually consumes his personal life as he falls prey to Thornton's sexy wife (Angelina Jolie) and his marriage (to Cate Blanchett) gradually disintegrates. Director Mike Newell showed great flair in balancing comedy and drama in 1994's "Four Weddings And A Funeral", but here the mix is less assured and the extremes far too close together. Only fitfully amusing, "Pushing Tin" too rarely concentrates on its examination of air traffic controllers and their daily stresses, opting instead for a simple one-upmanship plotline with a superficial and sometimes flippant look at the men and women within whose hands we entrust our lives. The four leads are more than adequate in their roles, though the characters portrayed by Blanchett and Jolie (excellent during her brief appearances) are all but forgotten for long stretches at a time. As for rental possibilities, visibility should remain zero.

`Pushing Tin' concerns two air traffic controllers. One is Nick Falzone, played by John Cusack, who as the hotshot of his workplace is happily married to one Connie (Cate Blanchett) with two kids. Into his life comes the notorious new air traffic controller Russell (Billy Bob Thornton) with his beautiful wife Mary (Angelina Jolie). The two men do not react well to one another and spates of jealousy and male rivalry, with consequences, ensue..

To it's credit `Pushing Tin' at least has an original setting - I can't recall another movie about air traffic controllers. Of course its merely a premise for male ego bating, a long running plot concept of countless movies. Here the bating takes place in trying to outdo one another in all aspects - work, social esteem and even with one another's wives. This leads us to the comedic events of this comedy. The comedy here is very soft, as the movie has a more comedy/drama mould to it than being ostensibly an all out comedy. Cusack's performance here is quite manic, as he winds himself up trying to outmatch his peer. As usual it's also quite good - Cusack has a great sense of being an actual character rather than an actor portraying a character. He works very well with the material he's given portraying a character that - while not as well drawn as his roles in such movies as `High Fidelity' and `Grosse Point Blank' - is nonetheless flawed, but still worthy. Thornton's character is the laconic counterpoint, laidback about the situation for most of the time but with a sense of energy and vitality brimming beneath. Thornton once again turns in a neat performance, with just enough character embellishments and detail to lift his character from blandness into quasi-life. Unfortunately Blanchett and Jolie - as the objects of affection - can do little with their limited material and serve merely as surfaces for the two leads to bounce off.

The problem with the movie lies in the pacing of the script. Considering the intensity of the job, there's no pressure ever evident in the movie in either the script or direction (courtesy of Mike Newell). Even the manipulation of planes, using some graphics and actual plane shots, lacks any urgency. Thus the comedy tends to amble along to a rather drab finale. The drama elements are adequate and the performances flesh out the characters, but there's not enough originality to make it avid viewing. Therefore you'd expect the comedy elements to balance it out. Alas, while there're some smiles to be had, there's very few laughing aloud moments. Sure the characters neuroses and clashes can create some amusing sparks but they're not frequent enough, nor sharp enough to sustain this movie as a comedy. Thus, overall, the movie is grand and passable but there's nothing to really warrant much of a look in, except to see the works of two strong Hollywood actors. 5/10.

John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett and unfortunately come together to create this sad excuse of a film called "Pushing Tin."

The absence of humor, plausible plot, lack of chemistry between the lead actors as well as the slow pace made me realize that I had made a mistake watching "Pushing Tin." The pace is so slow that I had enough time to go out and get fast food, eat, come back and not miss a thing.

In fact, the best thing I can say about this film is that they survived this film and are going to be in better films. "Pushing Tin" is nothing more than good talent gone to waste.

Pushing Tin is somewhat of an odd movie. It's not really funny enough to be considered a comedy, and it's not really compelling/dramatic enough to be considered a good drama. It attempts to pull off both at once, but never really succeeds.

The pacing seems a little "off". You always expect the movie to pick-up at some point but it never really does. It does manage to move along quick enough that it keeps you awake (barely), but I always found myself wanting the story to move someplace / anyplace to keep me more interested than I was.

The story itself primarily centers around the antics of Nick Falzone (John Cusack) and Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton), both of whom are air traffic controllers. To it's credit, I've never seen a movie about ATC's, but at the same time Nick and Russell could have been in any other profession and the story would have held up. I sometimes think the writer chose ATC's simply because no one else had done it.

The main conflict centers around Nick's desire to out-do Russell. Why he feels the need to do this is never adequately explained. It's also somewhat of a mystery as to what Nick is hoping to accomplish by out-doing Russell. Most of their competitions are basically irrelevant and don't prove much anyway: holding onto a match the longest, shooting freethrows, stacking as many planes into a queue as possible, etc, etc. Their "battle of wits", as it were, eventually begins to involve their significant others. Unfortunately the respective wives (Blanchett and Jolie) are seemingly little better than pawns in Nick and Russell's bizarre and meaningless mind game. They don't have much depth of character, nor any wants/desires of their own (beyond the superficial), and, as a result, you don't really care what happens to them.

So, in short, Pushing Tin isn't that funny (though I seem to remember it being billed as a comedy) nor is the story engaging enough to be considered a good drama. As noted in my header, it's not a bad movie, but it isn't that good either. Worth a rental if you've seen everything else.

I rate it 5/10.

This movie just doesn't deliver. It gets too bogged down all through the middle as Cusack's life comes apart because of his determination to outdo Thornton's character. Also, Thornton's character (although he is the antagonist of the film) is way more interesting than Cusack's character, with whom we get frustrated and just wish he'd get his act together.

The movie does become more amusing towards the end once Cusack finally tries to do something about his sorry state. But too little, too late.

The film also uses the style of super-verite everyone-talk-at-once, which means that you can't hear the lines and it rarely does anything to add to the story. Seemed like the whole first third of the movie was there just to develop the "atmosphere". A number of scenes here and there that don't have any purpose in the story.

The acting's all fine and good, and the NJ/Long Island clothes and decor are fun. I blame the writer, director, and editor for the failure of this flick.