Good if you're not hung up on accuracy

Rating: 7/10 (7 February 2005)

I enjoyed this movie, though as a fan/scholar of classic films and pop culture history, I thought it missed the mark a lot. A few observations:
Though he looks nothing like Hughes, I thought DeCaprio did a fine job. He was especially startling when portraying the older Hughes.
I thought Cate Blanchett captured Katharine Hepburn pretty well. Maybe three times I heard an ever-so-slight trace of Australian accent (actually, it sounded rather southern U.S.!) that marred the New England aspect. I was kind of bothered by the portrayal of her family; I don't think they were rich and snobbish; just liberal and eccentric.
No one ever looked like Ava Gardner, nor could hope to, but I thought Beckinsale did a fair job of evoking her personality.
The costumes were stupendous, but the chronology of the music was all outta whack. The choices and the authenticity of the reproductions were great, and yet we were hearing early 1930s recordings (and renderings of music in that style--e.g., "Happy Feet") when it was already the mid-thirties. The mid/late thirties were skimmed with a Benny Goodman tune, and the 1940s suddenly seemed to explode on the scene without transition. Then in 1947 we hear Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade," a hit from many years before that was no longer in style by 1947. Nitpicky, you say? Mebbe, but would it have been that difficult to get it right?
I didn't know that much about Hughes, but I was aware that he didn't go into the reclusive/not-emerging-from-his-room mode until the 1950s.
But, hey--what biopic ever got it right? This was an entertaining movie. Well-made in many ways. Long. As Lina Lamont would say (chirpily) "I liked it!"