VIEW FROM THE TOP

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sensuality

Rated:

Billed as the cutest comedy since Sweet Home Alabama, A View From the Top is ultimately unsatisfying. There's nothing wrong with it on the most basic level but the conclusion is easily foreseen, there's no real hurtle for the heroine to overcome, and the ending almost comes as a relief. Donna Jensen (Gwyneth Paltrow) was born in hickville. Her mother has had three husbands, none of them particularly memorable. Her dad only came to her birthday parties for the beer, and all her life people have been telling her she won't go anywhere but will wind up trailer park trash. After being dumped by her long-time boyfriend because he needs a woman with charisma to fit with his new big-time job, Donna decides it's time for a change. She wants a challenge, something to mark her apart from her peers and send her on the road to success.

Sally Weston (Candice Bergen) is one of the top former flight attendants in the world. She went from being a small town girl to working in the big leagues. She invented the hand signals used on most major airlines. She has more money than you could dream of and a best-selling book Donna reads from cover to cover. Packing up her stuff, the girl heads off into the sunset to seek her dream job... and winds up in a Podunk local airport where the motto is "big hair, short skirts, and service with a smile." Her first experience on a plane is a disaster but rapidly Donna adapts, becoming one of the best-liked flight stewardesses in the business. But she's tired of wearing neon orange and purple outfits and using an entire can of hairspray before heading into work. She wants high heels, slick uniforms, and First Class customers.

Convincing her friend Christine (Christina Applegate) to sign up for professional airline possibilities with her, Donna is on the road to success. One of their mentors is Sally Weston herself, who says Donna has the hunger which will take her as far as Paris and beyond. But an unexpected twist of fate lands our pretty blonde back in hickville, where she finds true love with a would-be attorney (Mark Ruffalo). When and if the tables turn, Donna will be forced to make a decision... and number her friends. Though the pace keeps up fairly good and the movie does provide a lot of laughs, View from the Top has something out of whack with it. A vital ingredient is missing, leaving it just your average predictable romantic comedy. What this lost addition is remains a mystery. Maybe it just screams hillbilly. It's a very garish production, lots of color and very little depth. Legally Blonde pulled the same stunt in a much bigger pond and with far more success.

The movie does have some sweet moments and an unexpected twist midway through. A scene where two stewardesses fight in the cockpit is priceless. Struggling up off the floor and smoothing her wayward hair, Donna smiles and says "Welcome aboard" to the shocked passengers as her friend is dragged screaming off the plane. Even though Gwenyth has nothing to work with, she still maintains her charm. This style of role doesn't really seem to suit her. The more resolved, aloof characters such as in Possession is much more her piece of cake than a flower child from the backwoods. The costumes they chose for her aren't favoring; they often show off how skinny she is. When she finally dons the First Class stewardess' uniform the audience breathes a sigh of relief: beautiful Gwenyth is in the building. Her scenes in uniform sauntering through Paris are often reflective of Audrey Hepburn... a sense of unrivaled class.

Content is problematic in some areas but the most troubling is the immodest clothing. Skirts, as one of the actresses laughingly admits, are basically glorified belts. They're short and tight. Necklines plunge. Women saunter around in skimpy bikinis and flaunt themselves to men. A man, mistaking noise in the bathroom for a friend of his, breaks in and scares Donna as she's looking for a clasp for her broken bikini top. (There's no nudity, but he does fix it for her.) Christina encourages him to lather up her shoulders with sunscreen. Bras and underwear are seen briefly as women change clothes. Donna and Ted live together and are shown smooching on the couch and sharing the same bed. There are sexual jokes about circumcision, homosexuality, and "polar bear balls." Mike Myers shows up in his least-funny role yet as the cross-eyed flight instructor. There's some language but nothing overly noticeable.

There's also the given gay flight attendant, who insists he be included as "one of the girls," talks in sexual terms about a man on the plane obviously hitting on him (and his inability to understand why Donna hasn't found it hard not to fall for him), and ooohs over members of the male sex. Given our culture's recent obsession with vulgar romantic comedies, View from the Top is fairly clean by most standards. But it's as dry as a flight through the Sierra and about as imaginative as a bowl of Jell-O.

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