DeCaprio Recites Howard Hughes' Lines, Badly

Rating: 5/10 (28 February 2005)

I really wish I could be more inclined to like The Aviator. Howard Hughes lead an interesting, if somewhat strange, life. He covered an era of enormous change & discovery in the world & America, as well as developing & promoting many great developments himself (noteably the cantilever bra for Jean Harlow!).
I also love Marting Scorsese, he's made some marvelous films. Even Leonarod DeCaprio showed great promise after Catch Me if You Can. Yet this films lacks that "something", this assembly of parts is less than you would expect when viewed as a whole.
First of all lets start with the good. Alan Alda is terrific, snarly & mean as Sen. Brewster & after this performance Kate Blanchet would surely be the top choice for anyone wanting to do the life story of Katherine Hepburn. Gwen Steffani as Jean Harlow does a passable job, but lacks the uh, "assets" that so enamored Harlow to Hughes & Jude Law continues to build up a great body of work as Eroll Flynn. It is admittedly hard to portray such well know people on screen, when you have actors portraying actors.
This is what is so unforgivable about DeCaprio. Hughes is largely unknown to the public, we have seen some old footage resurface with the release of this film, mainly the congressional hearings he was involved with. But DeCaprio simply does not capture the voice, the mannerisms or the look of Hughes. Is it as if he's still at the "reading through the lines" stage, not acting at all. What we are left with is Leonardo DeCarpio reciting Howard Hughes' words in a flat, soul less manner. What we are seeing is DeCaprio, only what we hear is Hughes.
Some of the CGI is also flaccid, the crash that played such a central role in the way Hughes' life developed is obviously fake, much like the Japanese aircraft in Pearl Harbor (which would have looked more convincing if they'd been on strings!). Some people get carried away with CGI special effects, they are captivated with the cleverness of what they can do, without realising that the final footage can look simply uninspiring. These directors can learn a lot from such classics as The Battle of Britain for tips on how to film flying sequences that pack an emotional punch, all without a single kilobyte of CGI.
Also the story line is somewhat sanitised. The poster for this film says that "Some dreamed of the future, he built it" yet this does not line up at all well with Hughes' insistence on pursuing the Spruce Goose project. This was done both at great public & private costs, leading to a technological dead end. This was obvious for a very long time, yet Hughes wouldn't face up to reality & stuck with outdated technology while the world around him changed. He didn't build the future, he built the past. Whatever his previous achievements were this showed his inability to move on past a certain period of time in his life.
This film ranks along with such other Guff-Monsters as Titanic & Pearl Harbor, although it is a far better effort than either of those two dreadful films. None the less Aviator is in this category because it should be good, could have been fantastic, but in the end it is simply acceptable