"Come in with the milk"

Rating: 10/10 (11 November 2009)

Scorcese has achieved a brilliance in a film that it is against his type. Scorcese is making a film not only about Howard Hughes but the times and the culture he embodied. It does not try to exploit our hero's underside. Instead 'The Aviator' plays like a great Shakespeare tragedy. Howard Hughes was a larger than life man who in the end was exploited and destroyed only by himself.
Again I expected any film about Hughes to exploit his OCD. Scorcese doesn't do that. Of course as the film progresses he tip toes ever closer to his tragic fate, but the film isn't built to get him to his Las Vegas penthouse. The film is built around Hughes trying to ensure his place in American history and what it means to be an American. Scorcese shows Hughes as an innovator and a dreamer. Whose love for Aviation brought him out of the screening room for a final showdown with a corrupt Congressional committee to ensure his place as an American hero. This is the only way to do a film about Hughes.
DiCaprio has never been finer than he is in this film. He is able to embody all the facets of Hughes life as he progresses from boy wonder to Hollywood playboy to tragic mad man. If ever Oscar consideration mattered for DiCaprio it is in his turn as Hughes. Physically DiCaprio always has a boy like quality, but here he transforms into Hughes. There is an absolutely brilliant close up Scorcese shows into an aging Hughes face. We see the bags under his eyes and forget they belong to DiCaprio. He gives a full performance.
Historical liberties were taken in this film and I really don't care that they were. I have trouble believing that Hughes relationship with Katherine Hepburn was as significant as the film seems to suggest it was. In all fairness I think Hughes probably never truly loved a woman as much as he loved and hated himself. Cate Blanchett deserves great praise though for her performance as Hepburn. Hepburn impressions are a dime a dozen. I don't think Blanchett is impersonating Hepburn though. She offers her own distinct voice on this character. The most moving scene is when Hepburn talks to Hughes through the door of his personal isolation. Hepburn comes from a vantage point of pity for Hughes, it is as tragic as the brilliant ending.
Even better than Blanchett though is Kate Beckingsale's fantastic turn as Ava Gardner. I found she had even more presence than Hepburn. Hughes is deeply attracted to her spunkiness and is fascinated by her. He loves the fact that he can't buy her like the other "employees". Twice he asks to marry her only to get a negative answer. In fact I'd say the film suggests that Gardner had even more of an impact on Hughes than Hepburn. She is the one with the courage to cut down the germ tape and prepare Howard for Washington.
The film has an all together great ensemble though. I think John C. Reily and Matt Ross were both deserving of Oscar recognition as well. Scorcese could be dealing with the most well rounded cast he ever dealt with. Sure the film belongs to Howard as it should but Howard is the sum of the people around him. "Everyone works for you Howard." In the end though Howard reaches his peak. I think the ending is one of the most tragic and poignant scenes in Scorcese's filmography or even motion picture history for that matter. Hughes embraces the fact that he will never again touch the sky and grounds himself to his inner demons. It's a haunting scene beginning with men who look like ghosts of Howard's future with rubber gloves looking at him. Reily's character bluntly says no one is to seem him like this and the door shuts on Howard Hughes forever. Tragic but it perfectly represents the spirit of the film. America has the power to create as well as destroy.