View from the Top (2003) * * *

Directed by:  Bruno Barreto

Starring:  Gwyneth Paltrow, Mark Ruffalo, Mike Myers, Kelly Preston, Christina Applegate, Candice Bergen, Rob Lowe

We meet Donna (Paltrow), a nice young woman who sees a job as a flight attendant as a chance to see the world and move up the corporate ladder.    Little does she realize seeing the world means spending lonely Christmases in a Paris hotel room and there isn't a lot of upward mobility with her career choice.    She despairs when she is assigned flights to and from Cleveland, but when you mostly see the inside of a hotel room and then another airport no matter where you go, all of the cities may as well be Cleveland.

View from the Top is a charming comedy with mostly sweet characters (and a couple of backstabbers mixed in for good measure) and an important moral given by Donna's idol Sally (Bergen), who wrote a book about her experiences as a flight attendant.    You can work your way to the top, but unless you have someone to share the experience with, it is meaningless.    Donna has an on-again, off-again romantic relationship with Ted (Ruffalo), a law student who falls hard for Donna. She falls for him, to a point.  Her livelihood doesn't allow for much time together.  

Donna is a likable woman who thinks she knows what she wants until she obtains it.   She works hard and trains to be a competent flight attendant with the help of trainer John Whitney (Myers), whose one cross eye disqualifies him from being an attendant.    His bitterness occasionally oozes out from behind his pleasant, supportive façade.  Myers has goofy fun with this rare non-Shrek, non-Austin Powers supporting role.

View from the Top is a sweet romantic comedy that gets the job done.  We know how it will end and why, but we still don't mind taking the journey.  Paltrow hits the right notes and the movie does also.    Sometimes, that's enough.