The Aviator Review
by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)January 6th, 2005
The Aviator
Matinee
You may think that Leonardo DiCaprio is too boyish to play eccentric millionaire and aviator Howard Hughes; I know that was my first thought upon glimpsing the Leo-prominent poster. It was also the reason I almost didn't see this movie, and I hope to convince you fine folks out there to resist that impulse and check this film out.
Director Martin Scorcese thankfully turns out a very different film from his Gangs of New York here. In this film we get to know the man, see the myth from the inside and the outside, feel all around it like a blind man trying to appreciate a sculpture. We get to see a man who we cannot begin to understand, and then come to understand him (as well as anyone could). DiCaprio is suited physically for Hughes' 19-year-old 1920's Hollywood mogul days. Later, in the Spruce Goose days, he's the spitting image of the crazy innovator, and you almost completely forget his youthful frame.
It's interesting to see a man's passions and his demons intertwine so subtly at first and then destructively and fascinatingly. DiCaprio pulls off a difficult task of keeping a man who was practically a cartoon waiting to be drawn in the realm of realism, and playing him without vanity watering him down. His shrewdness never falters even when he knows he is falling apart; he protects himself with money and charm, but the brains are really what keep him up.
Cate Blanchett steals the movie by channeling Katherine Hepburn's spirit. At first the physical dissimilarities (as with any famous person playing another famous person) were too jarring, too distracting; but in short order she embodies the great Kate and she rules every inch of this movie that she graces just as the woman she portrays did - in those days especially. I was previously unaware of their connection, but if John Logan's script is accurate, theirs is one of the great could-have-beens in Hollywood history.
The production design is marvelous. I couldn't tell how many planes were actually built for this film (a sincere compliment to the effects crew) but the intimacy Hughes has with certain crafts demands a real plane and you can feel what it must have been like back then to see these new changes in the avionic and aeronautic fields.
The movie ambles along, happy enough just to present events and uses an interesting structure to knit the times of Hughes' life together.
It has a strange feel to get used to (rather like getting used to Cate as Kate) but once you're in it starts to work. Perhaps it's like flying a plane for the first time. Scorcese peppers the movie with solid supporting actors like John C. Reilly and Alec Baldwin (but how does Danny Huston merit a role?), but the real stars are Cate and Leo. It's an interesting period piece about an interesting man who lived at just the right time in our history to live this extraordinary existence.
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These reviews (c) 2004-05 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at:
http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
