Re: Amateurish, fictional account of part of Howard Hughes life

Rating: Null/10 (30 December 2004)

The prior account referenced by this comment was written by someone who obviously felt that expressing his opinions without any basis in fact was better than keeping his typing fingers busy in other endeavors.
While the screen-writers certainly took liberties with some aspects of Howard Hughes life, there is no denying that most of the important facts are public record as they were recorded in the press and broadcast on live television. The way in which his craziness was manifested is also public knowledge and has been written about extensively by many biographers. The fact that they chose to show that craziness a decade before it began to rule his life is why this movie is a biopic instead of a biography. It is a story about an enigma, and they tried to crack the nut of the enigma by taking minor liberties with his personal, tortured times in order to help us see how his insanity both informed his work and destroyed his life. That's the nature of movies. Exact movie biographies DO NOT exist. They are unfilmable and unwritable. All movies are about perspective, and this one is no different.
The acting was, by and large, superb. Leonardo DiCaprio finally made a major movie alongside major stars and demonstrated how versatile and subtle his characterizations can be. Cate B.'s performance was more of a characterization. She didn't need to mimic Ms. Hepburn as strongly as she did. She came off as more of a cartoon than a human being.
The script was also surprisingly superb. John Logan's previous scripts for Star Trek, Gladiator, and The Time Machine were pretentious and meandering. This was tight, smart, and powerful.
The direction, especially during the Hell's Angels sequences, was also superb. There are few like Martin Scorsese who can paint on such a big palette and still keep things delicate and intimate. It is also gratifying to see him return to telling stories about complex, passionate people without relying on overcooked scripts or overcooked actors.
This was a very fine movie. In my mother's words, "I can't believe he made me cry for a man like Howard Hughes."