Movie Review: View From The Top

I recently watched this 2003 romantic comedy film on DVD; it's more a showcase of Gwyneth Paltrow's fine legs than a romantic comedy but there's enough romance and laughter to make it an enjoyable flick.

Plot

Donna is a small town girl from Nevada who seems to be content with her job at Big Lots and her boyfriend but somehow feels there's something bigger waiting for her out there. When her boyfriend leaves her for another woman on the grounds that she belongs in Nevada, a chance glimpse at Sally Weston, air stewardess extraordinaire, inspires Donna to sign up as an air stewardess with Sierra Airlines, a small commuter airline whose passengers are mostly drunks and gamblers. 

She then convinced her fellow workers Sherry and Christina to try their luck with Royalty Airlines. Donna and Christine make the cut and they enroll in training camp under the eccentric John Witney, who previously aspired to be an air steward but became a trainer instead due to his vision problem. Donna meets her idol Sally and her ambition to join the first class fleet on the Paris route drove her to excel well during training. However, despite her confidence in the exam, she was assigned to the Cleveland route while Christine, who struggled during training, got the New York route.

Unable to re-sit the test for 1 year, she resigned herself to settling down in Cleveland and reunites with Ted, a law student whom she met during a holiday while she was attached with Sierra Airlines. They fall in love and move in together; she worried about the progress of their relationships especially after spending Christmas with his family. Eventually, she finds out that her exam results were sabotaged and the opportunity to achieve her ambition opens up, forcing her to choose between her career and her future with Ted.

Cast

Gwyneth Paltrow acted so well in the film; the transformation of her character from a small-town girl to a classy fashionable woman was clear and nicely contrasted. Mark Ruffalo plays the sweet boyfriend and man, he was so cute. Funny how they're now co-stars in Avengers, though she's now Tony Stark's girlfriend and he's the Hulk. Mike Myers excels at his incredibly random jokes and energetic performance as John Witney. There's just enough chemistry between the cast members to make the relationships believable and easier to empathise with. 

Music

The soundtrack is now a great compilation of pop songs, that fits in the different stages of Donna's story. Listening to the music transported me back to the time when good pop music was aplenty.

Conclusion

This is another charming story of how dreams can come true if you believe in yourself. I confess to ogling Gwyneth's legs, especially when the costumes mostly consists of short skirts. I wondered why I didn't watch the show before this but I'm glad I did!