Great Film: The Aviator
A GREAT American TRAGEDY
This is an astonishingly beautiful and moving film. Martin Scorcese has
created a seminal work -- one that brings the harrowing, big-studio,
adult movie making of the 1970's and totally reinvents and
reinvigorates it for today's audience.
The story traces the rise and demise of billionaire Howard Hughes as he
struggles to find meaning and purpose in a life unfettered by concerns
of money, talent or opportunity. Whether trying to get a plane off the
ground or a young starlet into bed, Hughes attacks life with a fierce
gusto -- plagued and prodded by obsessive compulsive germphobia that
constantly threatens to consume and defeat him.
DiCaprio is amazing! It's the performance no one thought he was capable
of. It is a dynamic, smart, funny, articulate, intense, mature and
ultimately harrowing performance that relaunches his career as one of
American's finest actors. At the end of the film, you just want to take
him in your arms and sob. It's really that good.
Cate Blanchett is incredible as Katherine Hepburn. At first, I was a
little thrown by how bravely she attacked the Hepburn trademark voice,
but I was completely won over by the second line. It is a tender,
funny, incredibly convincing star turn that supplies the heart for the
first half of the film. The scene where she takes Howard home "for
dinner" with the family is a classic! Kate Beckinsale does a
surprisingly fine job with Eva Gardner -- conveying the slow burning
passion of this Hollywood icon without ever lapsing into mere mimicry.
But, in the end, this isn't a love story -- it's a war story -- a war
between Howard's unstoppable will and his fierce inner demons battling
for Howard's soul. It is the major relationship in the movie and the
true heart of the film -- one that fuels his eccentric genius and yet
constantly threatens to rip his life apart. He tries to ignore it by
sleeping with every beauty in town. He tries to outrun it, building
faster and faster airplanes. Yet, it is his one constant companion from
early childhood to his ultimate, inescapable end. And it is this
relationship that leaves you devastated at the end of the film.
Brilliant!
Cast
- Jack Frye played by Danny Huston
- Errol Flynn played by Jude Law
- Juan Trippe played by Alec Baldwin
- Howard Hughes played by Leonardo Dicaprio
- Katharine Martha Houghton Hepburn played by Frances Conroy
- Noah Dietrich played by John C. Reilly
- Glenn Odekirk played by Matt Ross
