View from the Top 2003

     Donna Jensen was raised on the wrong side of the trailer park in Silver Springs, Nevada.  She always believed she would be able to get out of Silver Springs.  She read a book by Sally Weston's book and Sally the most famous now ex-flight attendant in the world.  Donna believes the path away from Silver Springs is to become a flight attendant.  This is despite never having been on an airplane.  After an initial bumpy start to this career, Donna shows a natural flair for the job.  Her next step is apply to work for world class Royal Airlines.  This is the airline company where Sally Weston mentors flight attendants.  After meeting Donna, Sally believes Donna is destined for flight attendant greatness.  This means that she could be working first class in the New York-Paris flights. Donna believes in herself as a flight attendant but has to overcome some obstacles.  One of these is flight attendant trainer John Witney.  He has some hidden anger issues.  Also, there is her friend Christine Montgomery who also wants to be a great flight attendant.

     I can definitely say that I have never set my goal to be a great flight attendant.  I have not se a goal to be a flight attendant at all!!  In this comedy, Donna Jensen is stuck in a small Nevada town as a commuter airline flight attendant.  She longs for the glamour of New York, London and Paris. Sally Weston takes Donna under her wing and she appears to be on her way to the most treasured routes.  Hard-nosed flight-attendant trainer John Whitney is comical.  Unfortunately for Donna, she is relegated to Royalty’s commuter airline in Cleveland.  She is reunited with old boyfriend Ted. When Donna is finally given another chance at Royalty, she must choose between her career dream and her love.  3* (This movie is OK)

 Note:  Imdb 5.5* out of 10* with 25,639 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 14% with 123 critic reviews 34% with 25,000+ audience scores, Roger Ebert 3*, Common Sense Media Nell Minow 2* out of 5* age 15+, dove.org 3* sex and language, 1* violence, 2* drugs, Metacritic 27 out of 100 with 30 critic reviews, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 857 reviews.
 

Special Note:  The segment where the trainee flight attendants at Royalty Airways are undergoing training by John Witney (Mike Myers) included a lesson on how to deal with terrorists.  This scene was cut from the film and was not included on the DVD release as a deleted scene.  In 2019, British actor/writer/director Richard Ayoade found "View from the Top" so appallingly awful in every way that he wrote a book dedicated to the film, "Ayoade on Top."  He stated that he wanted to analyze the film as if it were Citizen Kane of 1941.  In an interview Gwyneth Paltrow  admitted that she thought this was a terrible movie. This interview can be seen as a bonus feature on the DVD release of Thanks for Sharing of 2012.

Mistakes:  Gwyneth Paltrow's character is a Nevada native but at 46:22 she mispronounces the state as "Nev-odd-ah." NO Nevada native would do that.  Donna reads a flight attendant job op brochure whose cover spells "Marriott" Hotel with just one “t."  Donna is walking through an airport terminal and sees two other flight attendants from her airline.  They both salute her using their right hands but she returns their salute using her left hand.  Of course this could be because Donna is pulling her suit case with her right hand leaving her left hand free to salute.