Sunday

Pushing Tin is a film that fails mainly because of its misjudged tone. As soon as it began, I visualised the probable meeting when a group of producers came up with the idea: 'I know, no one's done a film about air-traffic controllers before, let's do that'. It really is that bad. The music, the credits, the establishing shots all tell you that you're watching a movie that won't challenge you, that accepts certain limits as standard, or certain conceptions of the world. Strangely, it's directed by Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and adapted from an article by the writers of Cheers. From such diverse sources, you can sort of tell this was a producer's movie. For example, the cast was probably selected with publicity in mind rather than aptness for the role. As such, John Cusack doesn't quite pull this off, and Billy Bob Thornton and Angeline Jolie are just odd. Their characters are cliched, and yet this movie sits awkwardly between comedy and drama and deals lightly with the uncomfortable issue of adultery. It doesn't 'feel' right, is what I'm trying to say, and this can only be because it's been miscast and misdirected. Perhaps, also, this should be an independent movie but it was promoted to mainstream status. Or, maybe it was two movies that have been incongruously put together.