View from the Top (2003)

Directed by: Bruno Barreto | 87 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Applegate, Mark Ruffalo, Candice Bergen, Kelly Preston, Rob Lowe, Mike Myers, Mark Blucas, Stacey Dash

Gwyneth Paltrow plays Donna Jensen, the village girl (although you can hardly call Gwyneth a girl anymore), who one night after her quarterback boyfriend (cliché cliche) broke up with a birthday card, wants to drown her sorrows in a brown pub. The Boyfriend is a short role by Marc Blucas, aka Riley from seasons four and five of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (1997-2003). Her eye falls on a TV show where Sally Weston (Candice Bergen) is interviewed about her successful book she’s written about her even more successful career as a flight attendant. In a few moments, Donna’s decision is made to become a flight attendant!

Her first job is at Sierra Airlines, a small business, where the flight attendants walk around in tight Lycra clothes, making them look like waitresses in a strip joint. Her colleague Sherry is played by Kelly Preston. Her first flight is a disaster, she thinks the plane is crashing and terrifies the passengers. Rob Lowe still has a small role as a pilot, who sees Donna’s potential and reassures her.

She soon becomes accustomed to the air and even trains a new flight attendant, Christine Montgomery. This part is played by Christina Applegate, who can use her ‘Married with… children’ experience (1987-1997) again, because the part she played there isn’t that different from the part she plays now. Although she is not blonde in this film and she is going to look a bit more about this (luckily not literally).

Donna meets Ted Stewart, a boy who has given up law school to pursue his dream, and they hit it off, and they make an appointment for the coming weekend. One day in the same week, they are confronted by a group of successful flight attendants, who clearly look down on the three ladies and they decide to apply for a job at Royalty Airlines. The interviewer is a fun part of a squinting Mike Myers. It goes without saying that Donna gets hired, but surprisingly so does Christina. Kelly Preston’s role is over, her character doesn’t have the job, and she is written out of the movie faster than many other soap stars.

Donna excels during the short training, and the expectations are high, will she get the desired location in New York or…. It will be the express route from Cleveland, the least sought after flight. Donna protests, wants to see her exam, but this is against the rules and she will get another chance in a year.

Cleveland gets a little more bearable when it turns out Ted lives there. They pick up where they left off the night of their first date, and Donna tries to get through the year that way. Later that year she gets the chance to make her dream come true, but that costs her her relationship with Ted. Or will everything still be okay?

‘View from the Top’ is a lame movie, with jokes that you can see coming from miles away. What is Oscar winner Paltrow doing in this film? She is completely unbelievable as a white trash/trailer park girl, her civilized pronunciation is to blame. The raunchy attire she wears in this film cannot obscure the fact that Gwyneth is of good descent. This film will make you appreciate ‘Shallow Hal’ (2001) more. Mike Myers is occasionally funny, although he has to have his squinting eye. He gets more screen time in this film than Gwyneth’s cameo as Dixie Normous in ‘Goldmember’ (2002).

It is a film with a high Ken and Barbie content, ideal for six-year-old girls, but less suitable for that because of the vulgar jokes, which are not funny. The idea of ​​a girl dreaming of a job as a flight attendant is very outdated and the clash between career and relationship is certainly not new in this film, nor surprising.