Pushing Tin Reviewed

ROVIN' AND RAVIN' WITH MIKE

When Bad Films Happen to Good People

Pushing Tin, advertised as a comedy about air traffic controllers, badly needs somebody to guide it in to a safe landing. It takes off toward rowdy comedy, with a bunch of high-strung, high-octane, high-adrenaline, high-testosterone guys whooping and hollering while bringing in planes through the crowded airspace over New York City or making life miserable for a long-suffering waitress. Their ringleader Nick (John Cusack) may stray from his wedding vows but keeps his planes on track.

With the arrival of Russell (Billy Bob Thornton), a strong, silent (except when belting out karaoke) half-Indian recovering alcoholic cuckold, we hit some major turbulence. He does nothing to Nick except drive the poor boy crazy by doing nothing, not even blinking when Nick tries to terrorize him with crazed driving.

Before we have time to unbuckle our seat belts, Nick runs into Russell’s wife Mary (Angelina Jolie) weeping in the aisles of a supermarket, thoughtfully buys her dinner, and thoughtlessly goes to bed with her. Meanwhile, his wife Connie (Cate Blanchett) is at her non-credit art class, where the male models aren’t scheduled until the third session—yes, I just gave away the funniest line in the film. It’s really hard to tell which is more dreary, the marriages or the adultery.

And, then, we are treated to some domestic melodrama or plain old soap opera, a bit of romantic comedy at several thousand feet, even an interlude of trout-fishing in Colorado. How about the bomb threat which leaves a hole in the plot big enough for me to fly a 747 through without my glasses? Don’t forget the female body builders’ competition (poor Vicki Lewis of Talk Radio deserves better than this) the funeral, the French tapes….

OK, I’ll be honest. Forget it all. This film is a remarkable waste of five remarkably talented people. Rather than waste any more time on it, I want to salvage this review by reminding you just how good these folks can be at their best.

Angelina Jolie is perhaps best known for her role in HBO’s 1997 George Wallace. Last year, she was seen in Gia and in the very hearty Playing By Heart. Australian Cate Blanchett graced 1998’s Oscar and Lucinda and Elizabeth, for which she picked up an Oscar nomination. Where did she get the accent she uses in this film?

Ten years ago, at twenty-three John Cusack was pushing the envelope of believability to play a high school student, when he almost single-handedly carried Say Anything. Since then, he has acted all over the place, from a nineteenth century health spa in Road to Wellville (1994) to contemporary Savannah in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). He appeared in last year’s Thin Red Line and the year before brought his dark intensity to Grosse Point Blank, which should have taken care of the thug-in-therapy genre of comedy. (But, look at how Analyze This is burning up the box office.)

Billy Bob Thornton, at forty-four, is the grand old man in this crew. Best known for his triple threat (actor, writer, director) outing in Sling Blade, he was seen last year in two wildly different films, The Apostle and Primary Colors. He appeared with Angelica Jolie’s father Jon Voight in U-Turn, a morbid comedy from 1997 that is worth a trip to the video store for Thorton’s minutes even if its other weird charms aren’t exactly your cup of hemlock.

My main reason for seeing this film was director Mike Newell’s name in the ads, since he directed my all-time favorite comedy, Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). He has done Egyptian curses (The Awakening, 1980), comedy of manners (Enchanted April, 1991), and gangsters (Donnie Brasco, 1997), with more success than failure. The high tech world of Pushing Tin may seem far removed from the dreary backstage of An Awfully Big Adventure, Newell’s 1995 look at a troupe of actors in Liverpool in the 1940’s. But the similarities are there. Both films are workplace comedies (in rather arcane workplaces), with pressure-cooker friendships and sexual connections, told in a slang that makes a puzzled viewer long for subtitles.

Oh, well, another Friday, another film. Last week, with Cookie’s Fortune, I was celebrating the joys of the cinematic arts. And then, this week… It’s enough to make me want to stay home, kick back in my recliner with a cat in my lap.

Pardon me, if I don’t get up. Just leave me here, reclining a little, ravin’ a lot, but not rovin’ to the megaplex for a few days. Wherever you rove this week, however loudly you may rave, keep your feet dry and your heart full of noble thoughts.