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Never before have I been so blatantly aware that the filmmakers were toying with the cliches of the genre than I have with Pushing Tin, a quasi-romantic comedy that is concerned more with comedy than with the realism of the situations. The article on which it is based is hailed by many to be the most informative and insightful concerning the demands of the air traffic controllers at New York's Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON, for short). So giving it to screenwriters Glen Charles and Les Charles (who created the hit TV series Cheers and Taxi) probably wasn't a very good idea. However, the Charles' seem to have picked up some good tricks from those television series, particularly in character development, which makes Pushing Tin seem remarkably well-written.
And yes, much of Pushing Tin is well-written and entertaining, particularly the insanely witty dialogue that seems brought straight out of Cheers. For the first sixty minutes, the film is top-notch entertainment, creating plausible characters and very tense scenes involving the manipulation of airplanes in the sky. But about halfway through the film, the screenplay begins to wander off, unsure of what the audience would like to see. I for one would have loved to see more of the competition between the two main characters, which is so natural that one might think Billy Bob Thornton and John Cusack didn't get along at all during the filming. I remember being in direct competition with another student who was better looking, more talented, and more accepted by the other students. He seemed to possess everything I had, only ten times improved. I tried everything to beat him, and never succeeded. The only thing I was better at than him was music. If you have ever experienced a competition of skills like this, you will more than identify with Nick Falzone (Cusack).
Nick is king of his world: he is the best and most composed of all the air traffic controllers working at TRACON, he has a loving wife and two beautiful children, as well as a thriving social life. His wife Connie (Cate Blanchett) seems to be perfectly happy, enjoying her husband both in and out of bed. On her way to a parent-teacher meeting with her son's school, she decides to first make love to Nick. It is a marriage of companionship and romance, something everyone hopes for in their life. A wrench gets thrown into the works in the form of Russell Bell (Thornton), a man who allowed himself to be thrown far into the air by a landing airplane. He's also a very talented air traffic controller; even moreso than Nick. Russell takes chances with the lives of the people in the air, but he always gets them down safely and on time.
Russell is also married to the beautiful, 19-year old Mary (Angelina Jolie, who looks nothing like 19). She is everything any straight man could ever want: gorgeous, intelligent, quiet, and carries an impressive rack. Mary drinks hard liquor constantly, as if it is the only thing keeping her with Russell. After one such binge occasion as she sobs in a grocery store, Nick approaches her and asks her out on a date. One thing leads to another, and he finds himself in her bed the next morning, full of guilt and remorse for what he has done. This is merely the start of what will become a tumultuous ride for Nick.
For over two hours, Pushing Tin explores the lives of air traffic controllers. At times, it is insightful, smart, and pointed. At other times, it is so inept that subplots pop up for the mere reason of moving the story forward. The main plot is strong and consistently keeps going as we watch the rivalry between Nick and Russell grow to a climax. Several subplots pop up that don't go anywhere, such as an art class that Connie enrolls in. She will be required to look at nude male bodies, which her husband doesn't care about. Nothing happens after this is mentioned. We see one of her portraits later on, but it seems more of a pointless exercise in character development. Another subplot involves one of the co-workers (Vicki Lewis) and her bodybuilding career. The only point in bringing this up is to show off semi-nude women and having the men gawk at her. It's these sorts of unnecessary elements that cause Pushing Tin to faulter.
Of course, it's not a bad film at all. In fact, if it were played out as a pure comedy, it could have worked very well. The first thirty minutes almost make it out to be a suspenseful drama, where we watch the strenuous tasks of bringing planes down safely and how it affects the lives of the workers. The use of computer graphics is a stroke of genius, allowing us to move three-dimensionally through the world of air traffic controlling without confusion. The technical jargon can be overwhelming, but the screenwriters smartly decide not to explain it to us. That alone would take another thirty minutes which this film certainly can not benefit from. At its present length, it is already at least thirty minutes too long. The pacing gets screwed up by the frequent and misguided subplots that cover the film. When Cusack and Thornton are on the screen, nothing can stop them. It's a shame they aren't together more often.
John Cusack is a very talented actor, and can almost always make his material seem good. Here, he has good material to work with, a character that is clearly defined and perfectly conceived, and a talented director. Cusack infuses his patented facial expressions which are subtle yet exude a ton of information. His comic timing is as good as ever, and you can even see a little bit of his sister Joan in his manic characterizations. I was more hesitant to believe in Billy Bob Thornton's comic abilities, since he seems to be a mostly dramatic actor. And yet, he handles himself perfectly, matching Cusack beat for beat, never missing a step. Together, they share an incredible chemistry that lights up the screen. Cate Blanchett, hot off her award-winning portrayal in Elizabeth, tones down her seriousness and exhibits a certain charm that I've never seen from the actress before. Unfortunately, she's one of the lesser developed characters, and she can't quite make her character work. Angelina Jolie is one of those actresses who can either make you like her character or hate her character. All she has to do is show up. Here, however, she creates a very unlikable character, and as a result, the implications of Nick's deed are lessened. But it's essentially a one man show, run by Cusack. Thank God he's up to the task.
Director Mike Newell has done some good work before, particularly with 1997's Donnie Brasco and 1994's Four Weddings and a Funeral. Newell knows how to use the camera effectively, which creates some eye-pleasing images that keep viewers watching. Some work could have been done on the special effects, such as the picture of one man being blown away by an airplane, but the computer graphics that are employed to help us understand the stress that air traffic controllers are under are superbly crafted. Newell keeps everything wound up, as if something is going to pop. Eventually it does, but as it pops, it unravels and by the end, we are just not interested anymore.
One major problem here happens to be the inclusion of many different plot elements that have worked in numerous other films but here seem forced and laughably out of place. The most obvious fault would be a bomb threat that is received by TRACON. There is only one reason for it to be included, and that is to create a "race-against-time" moment that plagues many action films. The closeup of the digital clock ticking its way to explosion is fine in an action film, but here, it is more of a desperate attempt at speeding up the budding friendship between Nick and Russell. You can tell a film is in trouble when it must rely on a bomb threat to move the plot forward. Not just that, but we all know that there is no bomb. It's a scene so pointless that I wanted to throw something at the screen.
Pushing Tin is rated R for language, a scene of sexuality, nudity, and some violence. It would have been easy to make this a film a PG-13 one, and why they did not try for it is hard to comprehend. There is hardly any violence, and the language is quite tame. However, the inclusion of some F-words and some nudity that is not necessary push the film over the limit. Not that that matters anymore. Pushing Tin is charming when it wants to be, and cynical when it wants to be. But it also wants to be a serious look at the lives of air traffic controllers, and it fails to do so. It looks like the filmmakers took on more than they could chew and wound up with some leftovers that taste funny. If you like John Cusack, this is a good choice. If you don't, you are probably better off skipping it.
Rating: out of