Pushing Tin

Snazzily shot, deeply calculated, and enormously entertaining in its own overblown way, Pushing Tin is a sprawling mess of a movie which gets carried away yet still manages to entertain effortlessly. It's a glossy, none-too-plausible look at the intertwining lives of two air-traffic controllers and their wives - and while it might have been fucked up completely in lesser hands, the combination of Mike Newell's sure-handed direction and a first-rate cast do more than enough to justify the movie.

John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton play a pair of air-traffic controllers who like the look of one another's wives and engage each other in a dangerous game of one-upmanship over the course of two fraught hours. The chemistry between them is a delight, Cusack's nervous cockiness contrasting perfectly with Thornton's hulking monosyllabic menace - and although the script zips uneasily from comedy to tragedy and back again, the acting does more than enough to overcome any objections.

The romantic entanglements don't really ring true, and they are afforded a shade too much running-time for the film's good - but Cate Blanchett and Angelina Jolie (again, a perfect contrast) essay their roles as well as humanly possible, as the film careers towards a hackneyed but enjoyable climax.

The subject of air-traffic control is worthy of a movie in itself, and this isn't it - Pushing Tin doesn't meaningfully examine the setting its title might suggest, instead letting the TRACON operations room act as a backdrop to what is essentially a soap opera.

Still, few soap operas have ever entertained with this much charm: the script comes courtesy of the writers of Cheers, and even during its lazier moments, the dialogue fairly crackles with life. It's a sprawling mess and it definitely isn't high art, but it's more than good enough for a trip to the movies.