Stewardess get me a pillow this is going to be a long flight.

Rating: 5/10 (28 December 2005)

The first hour had me but as the film dragged on I didn't really care anymore. Planes, planes planes, wash hands, planes, wash hands, planes, wash hands... The choice of Leonardo Di Caprio to play Howard Hughes seemed logical for the first scenes when Hughes was in his 20s but as he progresses into his 30s and 40s Di Caprio cannot shake off those boyish young looks taking away much of the believability and his constant forced furrowed brow really bugged me. I wanted to yell "Leo stop squinting!" Cate Blanchett i found interesting and her slight over caricature of Kate Hepburn didn't bother me. John C. Reilly (always on top form) and the use of Technicolour for the scenes set in the 30s is ambitious as is some of the cinematography.
Unfortunately we learn little about Hughes which for a biopec is pretty pointless. We don't get any insight to how his parents founded his empire, how much he was actually worth, why he suffered from mental illness and compulsive cleanliness or what inspired him to become a visionary engineer. In the end the story just waaayy toooo slooooow and i reverted to forwarding past the boring conversations in the hope of something interesting...it never came. As much as I wanted to like it put both my girlfriend and I to sleep and we turned it off before the end. 5 YAWNS.