Titanic Review
by "Sridhar Prasad" (sridharp AT erols DOT com)December 30th, 1997
Titanic
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Gloria Stuart, and Bill Paxton
Written and Directed by James Cameron
After months of speculation and delays, Titanic was quickly becoming 1997's Waterworld. Incredibly overbudget, and hopelessly ambitious (accroding to the insiders), this film had no chance, with no A list stars, and all that money spent for a 3 hour, 15 minute love story.
Forget the negative hype: Titanic almost lives up to its price tag, and its one heck of a great film. From the beginning, this film grips you like no other modern-day romance has. It literally begins from the end, as we go through Titanic, now at the bottom of the ocean. We are looking through the eyes of fortune-hunter Brock Lovett, who hasn't experienced Titanic, until he meets actress Rose Calvert (Stuart), who claims to be a passenger. Rose tells her story from the very first day. She was a woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater (Winslet), whose family fortune is gone, and who is being pressured into a marriage she doesn't want with a rich, powerful, and unpleasant playboy named Cal Hockley (Zane). Cal obviously wants Rose as a trophy, and stops at nothing to get her. He offers gifts by the dozen, he gives her everything he has. He courts her mother even more aggressively, and the marriage is all but a done deal.
We also see our other main character, Jack Dawson. Jack is a poor artist, who manages to win his ticket onto the Ship of Dreams via a poker game. He is going home, to America. Leonardo DiCaprio, in a role that vaults him into stardom, plays this with an irrestible blend of charm and exuberance. We feel Jack's happiness, his dreams, and his life.
Rose, on the other hand, is a melancholy, depressed woman who is being pressured into a world she doesn't want. She makes a fateful attempt to commit suicide, only to be stopped by Jack. The two become close, and during the course of a day fall in love. Rose is trapped by her emotions, and finally succumbs to Jack's charms. On the fateful night, they are together, and Rose declares her independence.
However, after the ship hits the iceberg, Cal, who is determined not to lose his trophy, arranges for Jack to be arrested, and for Rose to come with him. As the ship sinks, Rose and Jack meet again, and they try desperately for an escape, as both of them look to live and prosper together, as free souls.
This may all sound like hackneyed Hollywood. Believe me, it is. The dialogue is brilliant at times, and completely lousy at other times. Cameron's writing is inane duirng much of the romance, and you get the feeling this shoudn't work as a movie, despite a winning story. But DiCaprio and Winslet are irresistible. Winslet gives the performance of a lifetime. She is brilliant, even better than the outstanding DiCaprio. Zane plays his role with a nasty relish, and Kathy Bates, as the Unsinkable Molly Brown, rounds out the superb supporting cast with a memorable perfomance. The cast makes the dialogue into gold. You believe their stories, you believe their fantasies. So what if the character development is lousy? The acting makes up for it. The details are so meticulously drawn, the parties, the fun, the sheer pleasure of being young, of being in love so much that nothing else matters, all of this contributes to a very solid, very good romance.
Even then, the first 2 1/2 hours aren't great: they're merely very, very good. But Cameron becomes an inspired director at the end. He is frenetically brilliant, he directs with a passion, a fury, he crams an two hours of anguish into one unforgettable hour of sheer fury, as he takes his 200 million dollar ship and violenty plunges it into the sea, taking 1500 people with it. He matches his fury with the perils of the main characters, blending in James Horner's beautiful music, contrasting the tragic beauty of the supporting cast with the violence of the sinking. The pity, the tragedy hit the heart like nothing else. The little details, the playing of the band, the children, the third class passengers, the commotion of the sinking, all combine into a harrowing hour like nothing ever been done before. The emotional anguish of the sinking is still difficult to describe. The subtle touches, marked by brilliant performances by Victor Garber and Bernard Hill as Thomas Andrews and Captain E.J. Smith are wrenching. The ending is simply devastating. Nothing in film has prepared you for this ending.
Cameron has created an epic that will live for a long time. If only his dialogue avoided cheesiness during the romance, this film could have been one for all time. As it is, the film is one of the best of the year. Kudos go again to DiCaprio, who will most certainly get an Oscar nomination, and Winslet, who is the odds on favorite for best actress. Horner's music is something so emotionally captivating, it deserves best score of the year. Bates and Stuart and marvelous, as is the underappreciated Billy Zane. Frances Fisher, in her role as Rose's mother, is also very good. Kudos also to Jim Cameron, who had the will and the audacity to do something this brazen and make it work. This film is amazing. Its not the best of the year (L.A. Confidential's superb characters and plot are better), but damned if its not the most emotional, and the most heart-wrenching. This is Hollywood entertainment at its very best.
FINAL: **** out of ****
(2nd best of the year)
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