Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #218011 in DVD
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Running time: 87 minutes

Amazon.com
An ingeniously campy and enormously entertaining piece of fluff, View from the Top stars the impossibly lithe Gwyneth Paltrow as Donna, a white-trash girl with dreams of escaping her dead-end life by becoming an international flight attendant. Her destiny is complicated by a sweet guy (Mark Ruffalo) who just wants to live with his family in Cleveland and by a sister stewardess (Christina Applegate) who stabs Donna in the back. View from the Top doesn't take itself seriously, yet takes itself just seriously enough--Donna and the rest of the characters treat their absurdly candy-colored world as if it mattered. As Donna experiences the world and improves her fashion sense, the result is both hilarious and hilariously touching. Also featuring Mike Myers, Kelly Preston, and Candice Bergen as Donna's visionary mentor. --Bret Fetzer

From The New Yorker
A sorry stewardess comedy with Gwyneth Paltrow miscast in a role more suited to Yasmine Bleeth. She plays a small-town girl, a trainee from flight-attendant school, who's out for new horizons. The cast, which includes Christina Applegate, Mark Ruffalo, and Candice Bergen, is tossed around like luggage in an overhead compartment by the director Bruno Barreto. Only Mike Myers, in a loony cameo as a flight instructor, gets laughs. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Shhh, don't tell anyone
I read a review of this movie when it came to the theaters that just completely tore it apart from oepning frame to closing. Thus, I avoided seeing it for all of the right reasons. However, the genre of film is one of my boyfriend's favorites, and as a favor to him, rented this little movie for a quick Saturday afternoon's entertainment. What I found was a quirky, fun, funny movie that, if you don't take it all too seriously, you can seriously warm to.

Gwyneth Paltrow plays Donna, a girl with stars and the skies in her eyes. Donna longs for a better life than her small town girlhood in Silver Springs. Hooking up with a small commuter airline, Donna starts her career in the air. In one short but pivotal scene, she is dissed by a trio of snooty flight atttendants, which fires her upward. Soon, she moves up to a major airlines, but first, has to endure the training process, run by the ever funny Mike Meyers.

Complication besets complication, but no worries, this is a film whose plot is secondary to the likabillity of its characters. You know about the ending, but the time spent with these people is entertaining. Turning in great performances is the hugely underused Kelly Preston, Christina Applegate as a ditsy coworker, wonderful Candice Bergan as a flight attendant extraordinaire, and the lovable Mark Ruffalo, playing a has-it-together guy, finally.

Much disdain has been heaped on this movie, perhaps by people intending to take it much more seriously than was its intention. Citizen Kane its not, but a lighthearted time spent in the skies. As we follow Donna on her journey of self-revelation, we root for her and all of her friends as well. So sit back, make sure your tray table is locked, and this time, you don't have to locate your nearest exits, with a View from the Top.

Fun Movie (forget bad reviews). Made Me Laugh & Feel Good!

Gwyneth Paltrow was great as Donna, the main character who dreams of one day being an international flight attendant. Maybe this wasn't her best role, but I certainly enjoyed her performance. The other characters were all good too: Christina Applegate, Candice Bergen, Kelly Preston, Mark Ruffalo (Donna's future boyfriend), and Rob Lowe (although he was only in a few scenes). The characters I liked the best were the gay flight attendant and Mike Myers (that was a nice surprise after being tired of his "Austin Powers" gags). The weakest part about this movie was probably the script, which could have been better. Still the actors made the most of what material they were given, and I was pleasantly surprised by the movie in general. I laughed and felt good walking out of the theater. Who could ask for anything more?

Paltrow Does Her Best With "Top" Turbulence
This is not a winner, but it was pretty entertaining. Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow does what she can with the sometimes lame script that brought along "View from the Top." Its got a great soundtrack and a great cast, which includes Candice Bergen, Christina Applegate, Kelly Preston, Mike Myers, and Rob Lowe. But a movie with some good potential got lost in too many release-date changes and over-the-top, sometimes unfunny humor. Paltrow stars as Donna, a young woman with big dreams. She is on the way to become an international flight attendant, and she's willing to do almost anything to succeed. When her smooth ride turns bumpy, she has to decide whether or not she's ready to leave her dreams behind. There are some hilarious moments involving Mike Myers and a "cat fight" between Paltrow and Applegate. Some of the jokes are likeable and funny, while a few just seem over-done or awkward. "View from the Top," though, is funny at times, and Gwyneth Paltrow is charming, along with her co-stars. But the finished project leaves you a little unsatisfied, but hopefully you'll be able to overcome some mild turbulence.