View from the Top

Donna Jensen is a young woman from a small desert town in Nevada who works at a hardware store and finds her life going nowhere. She decides to become a flight attendant and sets out to land a position with a major airline, aiming for first-class international routes. Her training and early career bring more obstacles than she expects, and her friendship with fellow trainee Christine grows complicated as they compete for the same opportunities. The film follows her efforts to prove herself and hold on to her ambitions.

View from the Top was released in 2003 and was directed by Bruno Barreto, whose earlier films include Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976) and Carried Away (1996); he went on to direct Reaching for the Moon (2013) and several features released in 2024 and beyond. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Donna, with Christina Applegate as Christine, Mark Ruffalo as Ted, Candice Bergen as Sally Weston, Joshua Malina as Randy and Kelly Preston as Sherry. The screenplay is by Eric Wald and Jenny Bicks.

Made for about 30 million dollars, the film took in roughly 20 million worldwide. It runs 87 minutes and blends comedy, drama and romance. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.3 from around 30,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.6 from 621 votes. A critics' rating of 3.9 from 122 reviews sits below both audience scores.