Best Picture 2005 Reviews #3: The Aviator
Two hours and forty-five minutes rarely passes so fleetingly in a theater as it did for Martin Scorcese's
The Aviator, in which Leonardo DiCaprio plays Howard Hughes, rich Texas businessman, movie producer and director, playboy, and, oh yes, aviator. I hadn't realized just how much of an aviator the man truly was; to the extent one hears about him now, it's invariably in the context of the insanity that finally overcame him in his later years. It turns out that's really a shame; he made bona fide contributions to the world, and people only remember that he locked himself in the penthouse at the Landmark Hotel in Las Vegas.
The film does an amazing job of making Howard Hughes, of all people, into a sympathetic protagonist. You see the brilliance of the man, the driven visionary, and the reckless desire for more status and fame and power and sex, and yet at the same time Scorcese shows us the little threads, the twinges of madness, and the inexorable slow decline into the sort of insanity that only a fabulously wealthy man could possibly sustain. It's not filmed or played as a tragedy, but it's a tragedy all the same.
The script is good. There are a couple of strained bits (one of which, unfortunately, happens in the very first shot of the film, though even that shot is redeemed by the end), but on the whole it does its job of allowing Scorcese to show us the enigma that is Howard Hughes. And DiCaprio does a fine job, too. Of course he doesn't look a bit like Howard Hughes, but that's not the point. The point is that he makes you believe that there's this guy who built a movie and aviation business who, every day, is going just a little crazier.
Alan Alda got an Oscar nomination for his role as a corrupt Senator, which was certainly fun (talk about playing against type!) but I didn't think it was exceptional. Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, on the other hand, stole every scene she was in, to the extent that I wondered if the screenplay had been redone to make Hepburn have a bigger role in Hughes's life. God, she was magnificent.
But ultimately, the real attraction is Scorcese's direction. It can be hard for people to understand exactly what the effect of direction in film is; it was for me. But go see
The Aviator, or rent one of Scorcese's other fine films (there are plenty to choose from; I recommend
GoodFellas). That thing that Scorcese's films have that other films don't? That's good direction. That's how it's done, ladies and gentlemen.
Acting: Good (and Blanchett is great)
Direction: Bow down and worship the Great Director!
Screenplay: It stays out of the way of the acting and direction. Good for it.
Overall: Took Sideways and Finding Neverland out back and whipped them until they cried like little babies.
