`TIN' CAN'T SUSTAIN ITS ALTITUDE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

``Pushing Tin'' pulls off the rather tough trick of making us laugh at the wacky antics of air traffic controllers without terrifying us into never getting on a plane again.

It's somewhat less successful at keeping a quirky, shrewdly detailed comic tone aloft throughout its two hour-plus running time. There's at least half of a very clever, smart-spoken character comedy here, but it has a midmovie collision with something more conventional.

Based on a New York Times Magazine article, the movie was scripted by Glen and Les Charles (veterans of TV's ``MASH,'' ``Taxi'' and ``Cheers'') and directed by the eclectic but accomplished Mike Newell (``Donnie Brasco,'' ``Four Weddings and a Funeral,'' ``Enchanted April'').

There's no shortage of on-screen talent, either. John Cusack and Billy Bob Thornton do what they do best - for a while - as two hotshot radar jockeys embroiled in a droll but potentially deadly game of psych-out one-upmanship. As their respective wives, Australia's recent Oscar nominee Cate Blanchett is convincing, if not exactly scintillating, as a Long Island housewife, and Angelina Jolie (``Playing by Heart,'' HBO's ``Gia'' and ``George Wallace'') is a scream as a belligerent, tattooed, borderline alcoholic, aspiring social worker.

Cusack's Nick ``The Zone'' Falzone is the star controller at New York's bunkerlike Terminal Radar Approach Control center (TRACON for short). The facility handles all traffic in and out of Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports, the busiest airspace on the continent. One mistake in complicated flight-path calculations means the loss of hundreds of lives, and the mental stress on the controllers is understandably mighty.

But no need to worry about Nick. A great early shot shows the radar screen's reflection in his eye morphing into 3-D inside his head, symbolizing how he has it all under control.

Until, that is, Zen cowboy Russell Bell (Thornton) moseys in from Denver. An unnervingly serene, half-Choctaw biker with a wild hair reputation - he once stood under a landing 747, just to get bounced by its air displacement - Bell loves to maneuver pilots into sharp turns and tight patterns that even the Zone finds audacious. He's also the living definition of passive aggressiveness.

Before long, the two men are not only competing at the job, but on the road, under basketball hoops, at neighborhood piano bars (Thornton sings a particularly winsome ``Muskrat Love'') and over each other's wives.

As long as these peculiar tests of masculine mettle are the main subject, ``Pushing Tin'' is original and very amusing. While Zone may be slightly outmatched by the unpredictable newcomer, they both exhibit a wicked ingenuity when it comes to getting the other guy's goat.

These early reels are also when the controllers' sense of community and gallows morale are depicted best. ``He's paid so well,'' one third wife of an overworked tin-pusher proudly notes, ``we've put money away for the kids' college and Ed's coming breakdown!''

When Zone's own psychic collapse looms, however, the movie loses its delicate balance. Cusack's performance becomes increasingly frantic, less ``Say Anything'' cocky, way too ``Bullets Over Broadway'' neurotic. And with the emphasis shifted to Zone's crisis, the enjoyably inscrutable Bell is directed to the movie's periphery. His tart-tongued tart Mary (Jolie) travels away with her husband, leaving Zone and wife Connie (Blanchett) in an air pocket of dreary recriminations and apologies.

Half of a really good movie is certainly better than nothing. But as steep descents will do, ``Pushing Tin's'' almost ruins a good trip.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Pushing Tin'' (R; language, nudity, mild violence).

The stars: John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Mike Newell. Written by Glen Charles and Les Charles, based on the article ``Something's Got to Give'' by Darcy Frey. Produced by Art Linson. Released by 20th Century Fox.

Running time: Two hours, eight minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two and one half stars.

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Photo

Photo: Cate Blanchett, Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie offer an impromptu performance within a performance in ``Pushing Tin.''