Cheap View from the Top (DVD) (Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate, Mark Ruffalo, Kelly Preston) (Bruno Barreto) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of View from the Top

Gwyneth gets to be adorable without the English accent
You keep wanting to dismiss "View from the Top" as a total fluff piece, but then something keeps happening to make you think that it is not that bad. After all, at the heart of this movie is Gwyneth Paltrow, and we might not really believe that she is a white trash trailer park girl, but we never forget this is Gwyneth Paltrow. More importantly, this is not Gwyneth Paltrow the drama queen, but one who gets to spend most of the film being adorable (without an English accent), and she can be pretty adorable (especially without an English accent).

"View from the Top" walks a fine line, because on the one hand we have some over the top scenes courtesy of Mike Myers as Flight Attendant Guru John Whitney, Josh Malina as Randy Jones male Flight Attendant, and Rob Lowe as co-pilot Steve Bench. Then we get back to Gwyneth as Donna, the girl with a dream, and it is almost like being in another movie. So there is a comic side and a serious side to this movie, just like there is the career plot line and the romance plot line between Donna and Ted (Mark Ruffalo), and just like Donna has her good friend Sherry (Kelly Preston) and her not so good friend Christine (Christina Applegate).

But the person who ends up being the lynch pin of this film is Donna's mentor and flight attendant godmother, Sally Weston, played by Candice Bergen. You keeping thinking Murphy Brown is going to make an appearance at any moment, but Sally Weston is exactly who she seems to be and as good as gold. She might be perky and the queen of stewardesses, but the lady is not stupid. You keep thinking this movie is going to turn into some sort of mindless romp about flight attendants, but it never sinks to that level.

Be sure not to bail out before the credits, because in addition to the traditional outtakes there is a production number by the flight attendants of Royalty Airlines. The DVD has has a trio of short featurettes, the best of which is a short history of Flight Attendants, including the famous paper dresses.

---

Light and silly
Such a flimsy movie would have totally failed were it not for the appeal of the actors, and here Paltrow is very endearing in the role of a smalltown girl who wishes to be a flight attendant and see the world. The movie is upbeat, has its obligatory conflicts and struggles, and throws in the obligatory romance.

Another perk to this fun, mediocre film is the presence of Candice Bergen, who exudes worldly charm and steals every scene she's in. And there's also Mike Myers as an instructor in flight attendant school; he has a peculiar problem with his eyes and manages to make it both a source of humor and poignancy.

So if you want a fluffy, inspirational film that won't make you think too much and that has it's memorable moments, View From the Top could be a decent movie for you.

---

uneven though occasionally fun
Bruno Barreto's "View From the Top" boasts a cute premise that doesn't quite live up to its potential. The film starts out in a satirical vein, promising to deliver a nifty spoof of life in the friendly skies. Instead, it settles into a typical romantic comedy formula, not bad as these things go, but nothing to write home about either. So while "View from the Top" never soars very high, neither does it end up crashing and burning. In this day and age, one must be grateful for a safe landing, even if the ride is a bumpy one.

Gwyneth Paltrow delivers a winning performance as Donna, a small town girl who becomes a stewardess as a way of escaping her dysfunctional family and white trash upbringing. The first part of the film is fun, as Donna earns her wings flying for a cut-rate airline whose attendants dress and act more like prostitutes than stewardesses. With their form-fitting, cleavage-exposing blouses, purple hot pants and big hair, these pleasantly perky hostesses look like they're ready to serve their passengers more than just the customary coffee, tea or milk. So far, so good - but once the girls move onto a more "legitimate" airline, much of the satiric bite drains out of the film and we move onto the more familiar terrain of catty rivalries, long distance romance, and unrequited love.

In addition to Paltrow, the movie features Christina Applegate, Rob Lowe, Candice Bergen and Mark Ruffalo in various roles. Mike Myers is surprisingly annoying in the part of a cross-eyed stewardess trainer. The screenplay by Eric Wald has a maddening tendency to drop characters along the way, giving the film a slapdash, unformed and oddly amateurish quality. As partial compensation, the film boasts superb production and costume design and a generally ebullient spirit.

"View From the Top" doesn't end up flying us anywhere special and it's definitely coach all the way, but it does serve up a few laughs in mid flight.