Great Story, Poor Casting

Rating: 5/10 (1 February 2005)

Fascinating story of Howard Hughes. Mr. Hughes life had many interesting stories it was clearly difficult to boil them down to a three hour movie. There are times in the movie when I felt a disjointed subplot was introduced without a true contribution to the film. The most disappointing aspect of the Aviator was the casting. Leo DiCaprio. was never convincing as Howard Hughes. His baby face never fit as a tough businessman, engineer, and film director. Perhaps the the only aspect of the film that was worse than Leo was Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn. It can only be described as annoying, unbelievable and annoying. Katharine Hepburn is a great actress. This performance by Cate was shameful. Martin Scorsese was successful in creating a BIG film. Many wonderful scenes.