Gwyneth Paltrow was much more enjoyable on screen back in the day when everyone thought that she was British. Now that she's hell-bent on showing that she can be funny as well as pretty, she's proven that she is in fact just pretty. Hey Gwyneth, let's leave these roles to Cameron Diaz, okay?
The trashy comedy, View From the Top, has a cast that dons outfits straight from Erin Brockovich's closet and southern accents straight from Texas (which is odd, considering the movie is set in Nevada). The story's originality is far from earth shattering: A small-town girl (Paltrow) bolts her trailer park for a life in the friendly skies. After attending flight attendant school, she is forced to choose between her new job and her new boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo). Clever....
Perhaps if you actually believed that Paltrow could fall in love with this guy, the movie would have been easier to stomach. Instead, this uneven and wholly predictable 87-minute offering from director Bruno Barreto seems like it was more fun to make than watch, especially with the not-so-funny bloopers at the end. Even Mike Myers, as the flight attendant school drill sergeant, was surprisingly unfunny.
Although the bimbo/hick stereotypes of View may disgust some viewers, the film was so mediocre that the only emotion it evoked from me was boredom. Gwyneth could do better.
-Katie Sommers
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