Pushing Tin
D: Mike Newell (1999); with John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie, Jake Weber, Kurt Fuller, Vicki Lewis. Great cast, great concept, great dialogue, even great scenes, and all in all,
Pushing Tin is a very mediocre movie. In the absurdly high-pressure world of air-traffic controllers, Nick Falzone (Cusack) is the star working among a group of charmingly defined crazies. The star, that is, until Russell Bell (Thornton) shows up. Arrow stuck in hair, Bell is a maniacal genius at stacking planes. Taking chances that even Falzone won't take, he is at one with -- if not the force -- then at least the air traffic patterns. Okay, so you have really great characters against a terrific setting; what's the story? Here it is: the increasingly intense competition between the two. The film starts off brilliantly. I kept thinking, "Why haven't I heard more about this dark comedic character study?" But midway through, the film stalls, sputters, and starts smashing straight downward. Squandering its imaginative storytelling, it slows down and gets stupid. Not surprisingly, since it is the first feature written by
Cheers creators Glen and Les Charles,
Pushing Tin degenerates into an almost classic sitcom romance flushed out with slight you-can't-do-that-on-TV variations. Falzone finds Bell getting increasingly under his skin. On the search for who he is if not The Best, he sleeps with Bell's wife (Jolie) and loses his own (Blanchett). The turning point of both the story and the film is when Cusack and Jolie sleep together. Relax, I'm giving nothing away. You have to be watching a completely different movie not to see this one coming. The question is -- what went wrong? All four of the leads are great, the chemistry and contrast between Cusack and Thornton especially electric. The supporting ensemble cast provides both comedic and dramatic depth. The villain is the script. The story just becomes too mundane and predictable. Director Mike Newell has made a career out of nailing home runs from such tricky material. Newell's debut
Dance With a Stranger (1985)
defines what is wrong with current British cinema, but
Enchanted April (1991),
Into the West (1993), and
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
all managed unique tones and original takes. Here, Newell's eccentricities, too charming for some already, fail him. He leaps, but after a promising takeoff, crashes.
