Soars above other biopics

Rating: 10/10 (11 November 2007)

In the past month, I've learned just how hard it is to make a great biographical film. Movies can suffer from an unremarkable subject (Bob Crane, in Auto Focus), not delve deeply enough into a subject's character (Ray, about Ray Charles), and not hit all the right emotional notes (Kinsey). The Aviator soars on all these aspects as it captures the most glorious slice of the life of Howard Hughes, the filmmaker, aviation innovator, and mentally unstable billionaire.
Granted, the movie has an easier time with its subject matter, because Hughes lived a flamboyant life. At age 21, he began filming Hollywood's then most expensive, Hell's Angels, and he was 25 and 4 million dollars poorer (that's 52 million in today's money) from his personal fortune before it was released, having assembled the world's largest private biplane feat, flying them to wherever he could find clouds to film (to increase the sense of the planes' speed), and re-shooting the movie from a silent film to a talkie. He produced a number of outlandish movies, including the original blood-spattering Scarface, and the provocative western The Outlaw, memorable mainly for its emphasis on Jane Russell's breasts. He wined, dined, and presumably bedded many leading ladies of the day, including Jean Harlow, Ava Gardner, and of course, Katherine Hepburn.
Where Hughes took his real risks, though, was in aviation. He was a brilliant technical innovator and a business visionary. Whether designing and flying test planes for the Air Force, building the first coast-to-coast airlines, or challenging a congressionally-proposed monopoly on international flight, Hughes did everything in a huge way. Both Leonardo DiCaprio, as Hughes, and Martin Scorsese, the director, capture the dashing and erratic Hughes with the same boldness as Hughes lived the first part of his life.
DiCaprio's intensity as a man driven by his obsessions drew me into the movie immediately. When he casually, but intently, calculates whether he can buy TWA to further his airplane dreams, I accepted that while the purchase might be a stretch, it was also a foregone conclusion. When he flies an experimental plane at 352 MPH, I was grinning as widely as Hughes. When he dates Katherine Hepburn (an outstanding performance by Cate Blanchette), there's no doubt that fiery "Katie" has met her match. And when he publicly confronts a corrupt senator intent on humiliating and bankrupting the billionaire, all you see is Howard Hughes spitting fire in a verbal fight for his life.
DiCaprio captures Hughes' growing mental illness just as well as his derring-do. Dicaprio spent some time with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder sufferers to study for the role, and it paid off  he captures the mannerisms perfectly, along with Hughes' horror at a disease that is engulfing him. When he began to obsess about cleanliness, I tensed, not wanting this great young man to begin the slide into insanity. Every time he washed his hands till they bled, recoiled at a speck of dirt on a suit, and opened a doorknob with a Kleenex, my jaw clenched as I silently urged him to pull out of the grip of his illness. The frustration and anguish Hughes experienced as went out of control and locked himself in his screening room to give his disorder full run twisted my stomach, aching for this classically tragic figure.
Cate Blanchette will get an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for her embodiment of Hepburn. At first, I giggled at the harsh reedy voice, distinctive speech cadence, and overbearing manner Blanchette presented (I giggled at Hepburn, too, when I saw her interviews). But pretty soon, especially as she and Hughes gelled as a couple, I believed Blanchette's performance completely, in her patrician act with her snobby Connecticut family, in her outrage at Hughes' frequent newspaper appearances with starlets, and especially in her tender scene where Hughes confesses his fear about his mental illness.
Scorsese is nearly flawless, too. From the co-written screenplay, to the pacing, to the CGI aerial scenes, and the nuanced performance he gets from all the major and supporting characters, this film is the equal of his other great efforts. While it's not as hard-edged as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, or Gangs of New York, it's a hell of a lot more fun. See this one in the theater, even if you have a big-screen TV. If you have one, see it again when the movie comes out on DVD and invite some friends.