Why Leonardo DiCaprio?

Rating: 6/10 (22 January 2006)

This is one of those rare films where, if you can ignore the main character, you'll enjoy it a whole lot. Not for one minute did I buy Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes -- I'm guessing the only reason he was cast was his ability to sell lots and lots of tickets to that other big-budget movie he was in. If he weren't a big name, you'd assume the casting people scoured the nation's high school drama clubs, found the prettiest boy, and dressed and made him up to resemble a mature man. DiCaprio IS a competent actor, just 100% wrong for this movie. I also took issue with the pitifully inane reason they came up with to explain all Hughes's mental health problems. Rather than take time to fully explore this in the script, in their haste to get those tickets sold, there is a scene early in the film, with Hughes at age 6 or so, which we're supposed to believe explains EVERYTHING. Not the only biopic to take the easy road -- screenwriters were doing this as far back as Words and Music, wherein we're expected to believe that Lorenz Hart drank himself to death because he couldn't deal with being so short. If you can get past the Hughes portrayal, there's a lot here to enjoy: Cate Blanchett as the insufferable Katherine Hepburn; Alec Baldwin and Alan Alda in the Bad Guy slots; exceptionally fine supporting performances; and some neat special effects. If they had only cast an actor who could convincingly portray a grown man -- not a stretch by any means -- I would probably have given this a 9.