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Review

Cusack thinks he's the best air traffic controller, until hotshot Thornton comes to the tower; thus begins a bitter rivalry that inevitably leads to respect and friendship. The high-stress environment in which they work makes for very entertaining scenes, and perhaps a glimpse of a world better left unexplored if any flights are in your immediate future. But director Newell loses focus of what makes these people interesting, and instead Pushing Tin drifts into an average domestic drama, with adultery and other mundane subplots that were more compelling in hundreds of earlier movies. As would be expected, the cast is fine, with Blanchett underplaying her unhappy New Jersey wife, in a big departure from her Oscar-nominated breakthrough in Elizabeth. But the TV-movie mechanics are a major disappointment.