Pushing Tin (1999) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/pushingtin.html Member: Online Film Critics Society
**1/2 out of four
Starring John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie. Rated R.
A filmmaker that wants to make an observation of the American workplace can go many directions. He or she can do it the satirical, brutally funny way, like Scott Adams likes to do in his Dilbert comics and tv show or like Mike Judge tried to do with the recent Office Space. One could go with subtle irony such as Harold Ramis did in Groundhog Day. Or you could go the way of the new dramedy Pushing Tin. Director Mike Newell (Donnie Brasco, Four Weddings and a Funeral) essentially pulls a bait-and-switch; he pretends to focus on the characters and engages us in their stories, but when the movie is over you realize that what you have just seen is subtle, somewhat effective social commentary on the unfairness of one fundamental fact: some people's jobs are just more important than others.
If you've ever wondered, or even been a little frightened of who it is that patrols the sky making sure that those big things called planes don't crash into each other while flying 600 miles per hour at 20,000 feet in the air, this movie may make you a little wary of flying. From the very beginning it plunges us into the world of the engimatic people that are air-traffic controllers. Newell introduces us to hot-shot Nick Falzone (John Cusack), a cocky but gentle, average guy with an average wife. His job, however, is nothing but average: on his shoulders, every minute of every hour, lie thousands of lives. One slip and you lose a planeload of people. Fortunately, Nick hasn't slipped: yet. But then a new guy is hired, Russell (Billy Bob Thornton, and from the moment the two see each other, they hate each other. Or so it seems.
What is most interesting about Pushing Tin is the way it handles the men's intense rivalry. I liked how Newell never let it boil down to something very simple, like he easily could have. As a matter of fact, the fun part of this movie is figuring out just what drives these two men. Let me warn you: the reason is not simple and it never becomes glaringly obvious, although it isn't particularly hard to see after all is said and done.
Pushing Tin tends to be darkly funny, but if I was asked to classify the movie I would likely say drama. It is even a real drama, up until about two-thirds of the way through, when it completely falls apart. For reasons that never become clear, Pushing Tin falls into the deadly grips of conventionality just as it was starting to become interesting. It all begins with a bomb threat -- now you know that a sudden bomb threat in a movie like this can only ruin it. That holds true, because after that scene everything goes wrong in this movie. There is a ridiculous and utterly pointless sequence closer to the end, which I won't go into, but which involves two people standing under a Boeing 747 as it takes off. It's your average pseudo-inspirational crap.
Fortunately, the performances from the leads in Pushing Tin are solid straight across. John Cusack is charismatic in a charismatic role, and Cate Blanchett finally has a delightfully ordinary role to play, and after seeing her in Elizabeth it's fun to watch her play an ordinary person. Billy Bob Thornton is extraordinary once again, more mysterious than anything else in a role that lets him (for once) underplay his character.
The first half of Pushing Tin works like a gem, the second half flops. I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or go stand under a Boeing 747.
©1999 Eugene Novikov‰
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