View from the Top

i liked the premise - small-town girl makes it big as an airline stewardess. the costuming and set design suggested this could be a hip, trend-setting movie. i love seeing women and men who seem different and invite curiosity, i like watching Gwyneth Paltrow acting out the sincerity in her character. but it sure seemed this script wasn't rewritten enough times - even redirected. most of the other characters were introduced as a little quirky or sexy, but after that they became uninteresting, the tension or romance between them didn't seem real. why introduce characters that never recur or mean anything in the end? why go to Paris or New York, and see it from the inside of a room? it's as if the budget was being cut as each page of the script was discovered to be unworkable material! by the end of the film, i felt sorry for most of stars who appeared in this. i think it could have been one of the funniest, interesting movies of the year - i would love to remake it as a real insight into the world of the airline stewardess.

I really cant believe some of the bad reviews of this movie that I have just been reading on here! The movie is EXACTLY what it promises to be; cute, charming, and yes, a little bit fluffy!! However, it does not take itself too seriously and that makes its flaws forgiveable. I thought it was very entertaining and refreshing, come on people, LIGHTEN UP!!

It seems that too many people watch this movie with wrong expectations: first of all, it is supposed to be a mindless, silly comedy, and in that sense it does not fail. The very beginning of the film shows it clearly, so adjust your expectations accordingly, you Ms. Paltrow included :) I mean, there is Mike Myers in a role of an absolute idiotic instructor teaching flight attendants how to pronounce "assess" so it does not sound like "asses", and Gwyneth Paltrow in a role that takes full advantage of her good looks and portrays her as an unambitious (dumb?) blonde (in the first third of the film)... so if you are expecting some Kurosawa, or Bergman type depth, you are being delusional.

View from the top does have some shortcomings: first of all, it was being made just as 9/11 happened, and from what I gather, that influenced the story, editing and release quite a bit. Then, there is the strange cameo by Rob Lowe, which leaves an impression that it was meant to be more than just a cameo... but it ended up being a loose end. And there is a strangely inconsistent accent by Gwyneth Paltrow who usually gets it right ("Sliding Doors" comes to mind), so that leads me to believe that there was some serious amount of re-shooting which made for those inconsistencies...

Even with all that, the film comes loaded with good laughs, my favorite being scenes with Mike Myers who just nailed his role (but I understand that "haters gonna hate"), and even Gwyneth's reactions to his lunacy are priceless.

So, if you are expecting a terrific plot that would make Hitchcock jealous, move on, this is not that type of film. But if you are in for some guilty pleasure of silly laughs with some seriously good acting by the main actors (Gwyneth Paltrow, Mike Myers and Christina Applegate were all great), then you have come to the right place.

This film is really not as bad as people are making it to be. There is nothing wrong with using actresses good looks to make a funny film especially when the film has no pretenses at being another "Seventh Seal". If anything, we need more joy and fun in this world, and this film provides plenty of that.

p.s. Watch this film carefully, there are plenty of jokes that would be easy to miss if you are too busy eating popcorn.

p.p.s. BTW, Christina Applegate just proved again what a terrific actress she is! Wow!

Middle of the road comedy about the dreams and experiences of a small-town girl (Gwyneth Paltrow) who longs to be an international flight attendant.

Another forgettable comedy with (supposedly) high-powered talent that seems to be unused. Gwyneth does have a good comedic presence, and she looks good in the skimpy outfits, what with her lean, leggy body and all.

But it's all just light fluffy trek. The movie struggles to even fill its 87 minutes with substance. Basically just girl from small town, longing for high life and glamour, trials and tribulations achieving her goals, and final realization that love and home are really what cranks. My, my, original indeed.

Yes, Gwyneth is OK, not totally sleepwalking through this role. She obviously needs to be stretched artistically, though. The supporting cast don't provide much. Mike Myers' cross eyed instructor provides a few laughs, but seems mostly like an overplayed Saturday Night Live character.

Candice Bergen seems settled into these time-killer comedies, and that is her prerogative. As the grand damme of flight attendants, she does get a couple of humorous lines, and her lispy, stilted, staccato, deliberate vocal delivery is always funny to me.

5/10 because I did laugh a few times. When it's not funny though, it's not much.

On a very slow night, I watched this flick and was generally surprised at the physical comedy Gwen was willing to put herself through. I really enjoyed this film. For it's ridiculous nature. It's fable quality, and real nice (yet mostly overused) concept of home is where love is. And it reminded me that the journey with someone is better than the journey alone. Everyone needs a co-pilot and it's a sweet message (albeit sometimes outdated). I feel. a movie like this is genuine, and returns back to a time where we may not have been so cynical. If that's their angle, I would say...it's not a bad thing to be sweet.