Good insight into the demons that plagued Howard Hughes

Rating: 8/10 (10 September 2009)

This movie is basically three movies in one - The making of Hell's Angels, Hughes' relationship with Katherine Hepburn, and Hughes' battle with Congress over a law that could have effectively put him out of business, covering the years 1927-1947 in Howard Hughes' life. The opening scene, showing Hughes with his mother, is short but vital in insinuating that Hughes developed his OCD from his mother - either by listening to and remembering her fanatical anti-germ ravings about how he was never safe, or through strict genetics. It was probably a combination of both. Since his mother died young, she did not live to have the disease take over her life as it did with Howard. The first part of the film is actually my favorite, in part because Hughes is young and relatively free from the mental illness that plagues him later in the film, and also in part because it is just plain fun watching young Howard spend three years making "Hell's Angels". You have a hard time telling where his love of aviation and perfection stop and his OCD begins, and DiCaprio has the I-am-so-rich-I-can-buy-anything-I-want swagger down just right, mixed with the perfect amount of flirtatious charm and lost boy vulnerability. Hughes' hubris is balanced by his right-hand man, Noah Dietrich, solidly played by John C. Reilly, CEO of the Hughes empire for 32 years with only two vacations the entire time, and who lived to be 13 days shy of his 93rd birthday. This part of the movie has some of its most stylish sets and is the most visually appealing part of the film, in my opinion. The second part of the film, which focuses on Hughes' relationship with Katherine Hepburn, is good mainly because Cate Blanchett really steals the show as Hepburn. It is said that Blanchett watched every reel of film she could get her hands on from the 1930's that featured Hepburn, and her preparation shows. At some point you forget this actually ISN'T Hepburn you are watching. My favorite part of this section of the film is when the new-money unpolitical Hughes meets Hepburn's family, all old-money Democrats living a commune style existence with even Hepburn's ex-husband living on the family compound. Frances Conroy of "Six Feet Under" does a great job here in a cameo appearance as Hepburn's mother. This section of the film ends with Hepburn leaving Hughes for Spencer Tracy, and is way off base from actual events. Hepburn had been apart from Hughes for several years when she and Tracy actually met. The third part of the film is the most depressing and required the most acting talent from DiCaprio, and he did a stellar job showing Hughes descent into madness. This part of the film starts with Hughes' near-fatal aircraft accident on July 7, 1946, while piloting the experimental U.S. Army spy plane XF-11 over Los Angeles. During his convalescence, the political winds turn against him. Pan American World Airways chief Juan Trippe sought to monopolize international air travel and had influenced Maine Senator Owen Brewster to propose legislation securing Pan Am as the sole American airline allowed to fly overseas, at a time when Hughes planned TWA service to Europe with the Constellation. Brewster in turn, started a Senate investigation of Hughes claiming he had wasted huge quantities of the taxpayers' money and had yet failed to produce any planes. Just prior to the hearings, the film shows Hughes having a complete nervous collapse. He locks himself into one of his film viewing rooms, apparently for weeks, muttering to himself in one of his OCD-induced fogs. He does reclaim his sanity just in time, though, and manages to turn the Senate hearings into an attack on Brewster when he successfully exposed Brewster's dealings with Pan Am. Overall "The Aviator" is a visually stunning film with great performances by both DiCaprio and Blanchett. I was really pleasantly surprised by DiCaprio's performance, though. His previous outing with director Scorcese in "Gangs of New York" was such a bad film that I couldn't really judge DiCaprio as an actor. His parts before that basically had him playing male "eye candy" roles, so, again, I couldn't really judge whether or not that was all he was capable of doing. This movie, however, finally gave him the chance to either shine or fall in a good role in a quality film.