Billed as a light comedy, "View from the Top" is the latest in a genre I like to call "diet comedy." Like light cream cheese or low-fat chips, diet comedy bears somewhat of a resemblance to actual comedy, but it's watered-down and not nearly as enjoyable. In other words, "View from the Top" places greater emphasis on the "light" than the "comedy," and the result is that the movie is pleasant but boring and utterly forgettable.
The movie stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Donna Jensen, a ne'er do well from rural Nevada who just wants to get out of her small-town existence working at the Big Lots. So after seeing legendary flight attendant and motivational speaker Sally Westin (Candace Bergen) on television, she decides to become a flight attendant with small-time Sierra Airlines.
During her tenure she befriends Sherry (Kelly Preston), a veteran of the skies, and newcomer Christine (Christina Applegate), and finds she has some romantic chemistry with a law school dropout turned lake patrol officer named Ted (Mark Ruffalo). However, before a relationship between Donna and Ted can blossom, Donna and her friends decide to kick off the dust of their two-bit airline and apply to work for the more glamorous Royalty Airlines.
While in Royalty's training program, Donna and Christine are under the tutelage of an eccentric teacher (Mike Myers) who is the world's foremost expert on service in the sky. He would have been a flight attendant himself were it not for his lazy eye that serves as a frequent punch line. After having run through his gamut of tests, the ace student Donna finds herself inexplicably assigned to the express route out of Cleveland, while less-than-stellar Christine gets the more prestigious New York to Los Angeles route.
Disappointed but optimistic, Donna dutifully relocates to Cleveland where (surprise!) she runs into Ted again and they fall in love. But when it's discovered Donna's final exam from flight school was switched with somebody else's, and she gets her dream route of New York to Paris, Donna is forced to choose between her love for Ted and her dreams of travel.
There are plenty of opportunities for this movie to be funny, but it never achieves the big guffaw that is the mark of a great comedy. Donna's hysteria on her first flight, Ted and Donna's first meeting while Donna fixes a broken clasp on her bikini, even a catfight between Donna and Christine are all scenes that have the potential to be hilarious but are only worthy of a mild chuckle.
The comic bright spot of the film is the ever-amusing Mike Myers as the idiosyncratic yet by-the-book teacher John Whitney. As exhibited in such classics as "Wayne's World," "So I Married an Axe Murder" and "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery," Myers has a knack for taking what is not obviously funny and finding what's funny about it, and he does it again here. Whitney's lazy eye is the obvious joke; Myers finds the humor in a character who is obsessed with procedure and yet can barely keep his own personal stress under control. There are a few instances where Whitney resorts to ringing a small bell and repeating the mantra "I am a kitten" to calm himself down. Myers' timing and tone are perfect, and these moments are the funniest parts of the movie. His performance is over the top, which is exactly what the rest of this painfully ordinary movie needed.
The romance between Donna and Ted is also amusing. Paltrow and Ruffalo are no Bergman and Bogart or even Ryan and Hanks, but their scenes together are particularly tender and should make you smile.
That's to be expected with Paltrow considering her resume, but it does take two to tango, and Ruffalo proves to be a good romantic foil. He brings the same warmth and quiet sensitivity that he brought to his acclaimed performance as Laura Linney's brother in 2001's indie favorite "You Can Count on Me," and it still shows through in the role of the boyfriend.
Neither character is very well developed, but Paltrow and Ruffalo play kindred free spirits, and that mutual understanding is clear without a line of dialogue.
Unfortunately, a cute romance and an off-kilter mentor isn't enough to make this movie worth the price of admission. You're much better off indulging yourself by renting a classic romantic comedy like "Annie Hall" or "The Philadelphia Story" that puts just as much emphasis on the comedy as the romance than paying to see this bland diet comedy.
