Solid Movie about Howard Hughes.

Rating: 8/10 (2 August 2005)

Okay, I'm still recovering from "The Titanic" debacle, so I didn't buy into Leonardo Di Caprio playing Howard Hughes, and although Kate Blanchett's portrayal of Kathryn Hepburn was shrill and annoying, and the pseudo-psychology used to explain Mr. Hughes's idiosyncrasies were flat-out crude and ludicrous, and the scene where Mr. Hughes is staggering around in his hotel room naked utterly devoid of any entertainment value, still this is a solid movie. It's a solid movie because of the life of Howard Hughes itself. The story of Howard Hughes is not his mental illness, nor his affair with Kathryn Hepburn, nor his run-in with Congress. Rather the story of Howard Hughes is about what Hughes did, what he built, what he accomplished, what an incredibly great and gifted man he was. He was rich man, but he was also a worker, a test pilot, a builder, an innovator, an inventor, as well as a pioneer Hollywood producer and director. No matter how hard this movie tries to portray Mr. Hughes as some kind of oddball, and no matter how unbelievable and superficial is Mr. Di Caprio's portrayal of Howard Hughes, the man's accomplishments could not be ignored or denigrated, even in this movie, and they speak for themselves. So Howard Hughes had mental problems? So what? What is important is what Howard Hughes did, and for that reason this movie should be watched.