Howard Hughes biopic and a mixed bag

Rating: 6/10 (7 January 2018)

THE AVIATOR is a lengthy biopic directed by Martin Scorsese and covering the life and career of the notorious Howard Hughes, a Hollywood film producer and director and aviation expert. Leonardo DiCaprio bags the main role in an early grown-up star-making turn and does pretty well with it, although he did better in his next Scorsese film, THE DEPARTED. The film as a whole drags a bit and suffers from a surfeit of riches, with too many supporting actors playing famous faces and not all of them doing a very good job (I was cringing at Cate Blanchett's Hepburn portrayal, for example). The first half is by far the worst, a slow run through uninteresting romances and early film-making, but things pick up in the latter part with psychological depth and complexity and some decently-staged quiet tragedies. Scorsese's attempts to give the film an old-fashioned look which develops with the progression of the years is a clever angle, but those bad CGI planes come as an unwelcome surprise.