Web posted on: Friday, April 23, 1999 1:39:18 PM EDT

By Reviewer Paul Clinton

(CNN) -- Being an air-traffic controller at a major international travel junction like New York City is undoubtedly one of the most stressful jobs in the world. The new film "Pushing Tin" presents the profession as a collision point for chaotic personal and work lives among those who "push tin" into the three major airports surrounding New York City.

Controllers are sometimes said to suffer high rates of clinical depression, alcoholism, suicide and divorce. But if you think this film is going to be an insightful look into that world, think again.

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Theatrical preview for "Pushing Tin"
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Paul Clinton reviews "Pushing Tin"
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"Pushing Tin" is basically a soap opera set on Long Island. Granted, it's a soap opera cast with some of the best actors around -- it stars John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett and Angelina Jolie. But with the exception of the two leading men, Cusack and Thornton, the players here are basically reduced to wallpaper. The story never expands to include anyone else, except for a few great scenes with Blanchett and Jolie. The fact that these men (and one woman played by Vicky Lewis) work as air-traffic controllers becomes a mere sideline to the main plot.

It's true the inherent dramatic situations may be limited in a workplace of people staring at blue screens with little green dots. This doesn't offer the range of possibilities and emotions that Paddy Chayefsky had to work with in such films as "Network" or "The Hospital." Screenwriters Glen and Les Charles based their work on Darcy Frey's 1996 New York Times Magazine article, "Something's Got to Give," about what goes on inside the New York Terminal Approach Radar Control center. But best known for the TV sitcom "Cheers," which they created, writers Charles and Charles fail to incorporate enough of the potential pressure in that environment.

So, in the end, what this film boils down to is an alpha-male contest between Thornton's character, Russell Bell, and Cusack's character, Nick Falzone. The issues at hand? Who's the smartest and quickest at work -- and who can bed whose wife. The wives in question are played with film-saving grace by Blanchett as Cusack's better half, and Jolie paired off with Thornton.

Blanchett's performance is perfection in both pacing and pathos, and she has her "Lon-Guyland" accent down to the final T. It's an impressive leap from her Oscar-nominated title role in "Elizabeth." Jolie is an actress on a fast track to success. Her work in this film adds another feather to her cap, as did her work in "Playing By Heart."

"Pushing Tin" isn't a bad movie; it just doesn't live up to its potential. It takes off with great expectations, but climaxes well before it lands. The tense world of air traffic controllers, if handled correctly, could be a fresh area ripe for dramatic examination by Hollywood. After "Pushing Tin," it still is.

But both Thornton and Cusack attack their roles with relish and their scenes together shine. It's just too bad their little battle loses steam well before the credits touch down on the screen.

"Pushing Tin" opens nationwide on Friday, April 23rd, and is rated "R" with a running time of 124 minutes.