Ground control to major film
Peter Bradshaw
Friday October 29, 1999

Pushing Tin, the new film from British director Mike Newell, is a very bright and very entertaining comedy with four blue-chip performances.

The always excellent John Cusack is Nick Calzone, who is acknowledged as the best air-traffic controller in New York City's Terminal Radar Approach Control - or TRACON - where he must guide thousands of flights in and out of NY airspace without what is cheerfully known as an "aluminium shower".

Fizzing with stress and living on his wits in a job which sends many to the laughing academy, Nick is kept on an even keel by his wife, Connie (Cate Blanchett). But his male ego takes a pounding when a new and even better controller, Russell Bell - played with magnificent Gary Cooper-style self-possession by Billy Bob Thornton - takes over from a recent burnout.

So Nick embarks on a revenge affair with Russell's 19-year-old wife, Mary, played by Angelina Jolie, who is, frankly, so sexy that there ought to be a law against it.

It's all very enjoyable - if a bit overlong - and it is Newell's achievement that he almost persuades us that being an air-traffic controller is more exciting and glamorous than flying a plane.

The only sour note is the movie's reminder that all star actresses sooner or later have to eat the shit sandwich of playing the boring, demeaning "wife" role. There was Lisa Kudrow in Analyze This - and now there is Cate Blanchett, formerly Queen of England, here in the unflattering knitted cardy, provincial nail varnish and uncool, shaggy hairstyle. She's fine in this - she's more than fine - but I hope there are meatier parts lined up for her.

Guardian UK. October 29, 1999.

Aussie Cate Online © 1999 Lin, Dean, Lance
800x600 screen size recommended.

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