Beautifully told and with a great story  pardon the pun, but three hours flew by

Rating: Null/10 (13 January 2005)

Having inherited his fortune from a tooling business, Howard Hughes seems intent in ploughing into his first film, constantly reshooting and reediting it, leaving the money worries to his business manager Noah Dietrich. His passion for flying leads him to invest heavily in his own domestic airline, TWA, while also making motion pictures and having relationships with some of the most beautiful women (and girls) in Hollywood at the time. Despite suffering from an obsessive compulsion regarding cleanliness, Howard seems to be on top of the world, but attempts to steal a section of the trans-Atlantic business away from Pan-Am proves to be a risky venture, following several failed wartime projects, leading to a high stakes battle.
I must be honest and say that, although I watch a lot of movies I don't really care about the real life gossip behind the scenes and hence some elements of this film were news to me; details mainly, but even then I must admit that I knew very little about Howard Hughes outside of the fact that I had seen his name of many films down the years. Certainly I knew comparatively little about his airlines and his personal traits. For this reason I watched the film with some interest but also a pinch of salt as I was aware that these film rarely tell the whole truth. Ignoring this latter concern, I found myself swept along by a great story and a great film and, when it ended some three hours after I sat down, I looked at my watch wondering where the time had gone! The fact that Hughes himself is a very interesting character only helps a script that crams the film full of so much of interest that it is hard not to be caught up in it. At times it labours some points and at other times it will not focus on areas you would like it to, but it still works. I felt the obsessive compulsive thing was lingered on too much once or twice and some scenes featuring it could have been cut down a little bit, but they didn't slow the film much if at all, so it is more opinion that flaw picking. Also, as a fan of the cinema, I expected more of his films to be mentioned but I guess in fairness these are less interesting that his real work. On top of the story, the script is actually exciting and funny as well as being human and involving  a great combination and one reason the hours just went so fast.
I have not seen Gangs of NY yet, so cannot say if this is Scorsese returning to form, but it is certainly a very strong piece of direction that screams class and is very much his work. Complicated shots, one take tracking shots across crowded rooms and so on, all make the film look great without seeming overly flashy. I'm not sure if he has used special effects (as in computer graphics) before, but Scorsese seemed very at home with the cgi shots of planes etc used  some may not have been 100% convincing but it's as close as dammit. Unusually for him, the one place he did fall down was with the use of music as I found the choices to be pretty obvious and a bit repetitive; happily it took little away from the film but it is surprising for a man who wallpapers his films with music well when he wants to. The sense of time and place is spot on, mainly due to great costumes, sets and a real attention to detail running through the whole film.
The cast add to the feeling that this is a quality production, although at times they are a distraction. First off, DiCaprio is great  and I never thought I'd be allowed to say that again. The guy who showed so much talent early on before appearing to give it up to soulless projects is convincing here in many ways; whether suffering with a drive he can't overcome, being on top of his game or just being funny, DiCaprio does it well. Of course he struggles with the fact that he never ages (making it hard to see the passage of time in the film) and that he looks 16 anyway, but he tries his hardest to make us forget this and, for the most part, he does it. Aside from him, the rest of the cast are best seen as support or cameos and generally they are very good. With real, famous characters it is always a risk that actors will give impressions rather than performances but the likes of Blanchett and Beckinsdale are better than that and do both equally well. Reilly is good as always, Baldwin is enjoyable and it is always a pleasure to see Alan Alda, who happens to be great here. The only problem with the cast having so many stars in it is that they are occasionally distracting  for example Willem Dafoe, Ian Holm and Brent Spiner all have little to do other than providing a "hey look it's " factor.
Overall though it is a very impressive film and one that is enjoyable to watch even if you start the film with very little knowledge of Howard Hughes (something that modern multiplex audiences will do). The script is interesting, exciting and funny by turns and the direction is stylish without being overly flashy. The cast are all good despite a few of them being more distracting than value-adding.