Overly Cautious Approach Sours a Fascinating Subject

Rating: 5/10 (23 September 2011)

This on-the-surface look at the life and times of one of America's most notorious recluses delivers plenty of dirt, if not much real introspection. The mysterious Howard Hughes is certainly a tricky subject to nail down, with much of his daring decision-making and eventual descent into madness left officially undocumented, but I still haven't managed to shake the sense that there's a lot of meat to this story that's just been left outside to rot. Cate Blanchett is positively enveloping in her role as Katharine Hepburn, for which she deservedly won an Oscar, but the rest of the cast feels too careful and uncertain, particularly Leonardo DiCaprio's turn as Hughes himself. Leo's eyes don't seem bright enough to concoct the miracles he's performing, while his smirk lacks the cocksure authenticity that would make the most powerful men in the country shudder. Director Martin Scorsese seems similarly lost amidst such complicated material, which comes as a real surprise. Scorsese hammers his audience over the head with the outward symptoms that made Hughes such a curious individual in his later years, but falls short in examining the reasonable, humanizing concerns that led to such paralyzing compulsions. As an adventurous history lesson one could do far worse, but for such a long run time and such a colorful subject to deliver so few answers is a major disappointment.