Surprisingly Entertaining

Rating: 10/10 (26 December 2004)

Well color me surprised. Scorcese does wonders with this film. It is very good, but not great. The cinematography and direction of this movie is inspired. Scorcese throws in plenty of interesting camera work, and his directing considers every period detail. Perhaps the only thing that I found odd about this period piece (1930s - 1940s) is that it never really deals with WWII. The characters are so insulated that WWII only surfaces in relation to airplane deals and congressional expenditures.
In any event, this movie is thoroughly entertaining despite its almost 3 hr running time. Hughes' life provides plenty of interesting material for movie, even if the movie doesn't take us to the sordid ending of Hughes life.
DiCaprio does an excellent job as Hughes. He is very believable as Hughes at all levels of his life. I was pleasantly surprised by his performance, as I am not a fan of his (didn't like Titanic and thought his performance in Gangs of New York was weak by comparison to Daniel Day Lewis). His efforts to portray Hughes' genius, eccentricity, and ultimately his mental illness were seamless and believable.
Blanchett as Hepburn was great. She plays her over the top, full of life, and very interesting. Whenever she was on the screen the movie just hummed along.
Surprisingly, the next best actor was Alan Alda as a corrupt Senator. What a wonderful effort being cast against his sensitive nice guy image.
While the movie doesn't have a real emotional or philosophical center to it, it is still entertaining as hell. Perhaps the lack of center isn't so much a defect as a realistic view that most lives do not neatly convey a philosophical message or unfold in a clear cut manner (despite the fact that Hollywood tries to give biopics some philosophical theme or message). Whether it is the draw of fantastic wealth, the gambler's spirit, the womanizing with Hollywood's most attractive starlets, or the inventive entrepreneurial spirit, the Aviator is entertaining from start to finish.