View from The Top

Small-town Nevada girl Donna (Gwyneth Paltrow as a sweet, big-haired blonde) is inspired by a TV interview of a flight attendant (Candice Bergen) turned author to make a career decision. She becomes a flight attendant at a low-rent airline that caters to commuter flights and then, along with two co-stewardesses (Christina Applegate and Kelly Preston), attempts to upgrade to a first-class airline. She also begins a romance with an intermittent law student (You Can Count on Me’s Mark Ruffalo) that, like her friendships, may or may not survive her new jet-setting lifestyle. Paltrow is irresistible as the trailer-park beauty who cautiously wrestles with personal and professional issues and conflicts. However, the film sometimes attains but can’t quite sustain her intoxicating effervescence. Directed by Bruno Barreto (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands).