Gravitas

Rating: 7/10 (30 January 2005)

There is casting and then there is acting.
The Aviator is well acted, with Cate Blancett in particular turning in an outstanding job.
The film is poorly cast because few of the actors have the heft necessary to portray their characters. DiCaprio is a boyish lightweight. Ava Gardner had a presence that her imitator lacks. Hepburn was born to privilege, Blancett merely acts. Alan Alda is charming but not believable as a powerful man. Alec Baldwin, in contrast, suggests the seriousness, complexity, and deviousness of a major business player in the 1940s.
What does it mean that the actors of today cannot convey the actors of yesterday? Maybe Errol Flynn is beyond imitation, but I think not. Perhaps preferences for both actors and acting styles now discourage larger-than-life figures. The earlier era valued beauty, boldness, willfulness, and wit, none of which are in vogue.