Surprisingly, A Snooze

Rating: 6/10 (17 December 2004)

I didn't think it was possible, but Martin Scorsese has made a boring film -- a great big, gorgeously shot, beautifully art-directed bore, but a bore just the same. Howard Hughes and his involvement with advancements in aircraft technology and the Hollywood of the 30s and 40s ought to be a no-brainer. The fault is in the casting of Leo DiCaprio. He's a callow pipsqueak, who, while gifted as a child actor, has not made a satisfying transition to adult roles. Since "The Aviator" hinges on the personal magnetism of an obsessive and ultimately unhinged pioneer, this is a fatal flaw. First, there's the voice -- a crucial instrument for an actor -- and DiCaprio's nasal whine is rather sad. The depthless blue eyes don't help. Then there's the boobie face, with nary a character line (one furrow between his sculpted eyebrows doesn't count, although he works it with all his might). His petulant, furtive body language is like something displayed by a troubled teen in an after school movie. He does make an earnest try, thrashing around in naked desperation in a couple of scenes, and miming all the mannerisms of a soul afflicted with OCD, but it's all affectation. He's not much of an actor, and he's not a leading man.
The audience with which I watched a preview gasped with delight when Kate Blanchett popped into the picture as a brutally bubbly Kate Hepburn, all swagger and need. She captured the actress and woman without turning her into a caricature -- no mean feat. The scene at her family's dinner table is a revealing look at the privileged Yankee eccentrics who shaped her.
Once again, Alec Baldwin turns in a convincing performance as a high-powered bad guy, in this case the head of Pan Am, with Alan Alda, cast against type, as his unctuous henchman in Congress. John C. Reilly has nothing to do except wear fedoras, and and in her amazing jewel-toned wardrobe and jewelry, Kate Beckinsale is quite fetching as Ava Gardner. She's no Ava Gardner but that's not her fault -- nobody is.
A handful of riveting action scenes pick up the pace of the story, especially a crash landing in Beverly Hills which nearly killed Hughes, then it's back to Leo, and the movie flags. I wanted to like "The Aviator", and I just didn't. I'm blaming DiCaprio.