Objectively there's nothing wrong, but please don't make me watch it again

Rating: 5/10 (28 April 2015)

The Aviator looks like a wonderful film. Its beautifully shot, the costumes and production design are fantastic. Martin Scorsese is a wonderful director, DiCaprio and Blanchett are wonderful actors, Thelma Schoonmaker is a wonderful editor. The screenplay is eventful and has great dialogue. So why did I hate watching this movie so much?
Perhaps it suffers from biopic fatigue. Too much happened in Howard Hughes' life to make the movie a single narrative. Is the movie about his OCD? About his love of planes? About his mad vision for films? About his love life? About his fight with the US Congress and rivalry with PanAm? Scorsese and co. try to tell all of these stories at once, and the result is an overlong experience that is nice to look back on but tedious to sit through.
DiCaprio is good as Howard Hughes - he doesn't nail the OCD with Jack Nicholson subtlety, but the voice is there and the mannerisms are there. He's a solid anchor for the film. Cate Blanchett is delightful as Katharine Hepburn - its a remarkable embodiment and she imbues the part with wit and warmth, but probably not as much as there was meant to be. If she was meant to be Hughes' vice from OCD, the film really should have explored that more. Perhaps if the film career stuff was omitted, there might have been more room for this. In supporting roles, I enjoyed John C. Reilly's always unappreciated dramatic work, but Alec Baldwin and Alan Alda are underused (how did Alda cop an Oscar nomination for this?)
There's nothing wrong with The Aviator, all the pieces are there. But I think if they'd picked a few events from his life (the way that films like Selma and Lincoln are doing these days) it would have been less long, less tedious, and more enjoyable to watch.