Great movie, but no masterpiece

Rating: 8/10 (1 March 2006)

This comment on THE AVIATOR deals with the motion picture itself, not with its biographical aspects, since I know too little of the facts concerning Howard Hughes' life.
I can say right away that this movie kept my interest, even with its 170 minutes running time. In fact, I wouldn't have mind to see it even a bit longer by adding a few scenes concerning the controversy and release of Hughes' movie "The Outlaw". I eagerly wanted to know more about it. When looking at the story, Scorsese choose to ignore the common rules of scriptwriting. Understandingly, since this is a biography. The film has a spectacular opening, then is toned down a bit and uses a slower pace when it comes to the development of events.
Leonardo DiCaprio took some time to convince me as Howard Hughes. Don't get me wrong, 'cause in this movie he really proves what a great actor he is, no doubt (pun intended, get it?) about that. But it's just that I found him a bit too young to portray Howard Hughes, especially since he doesn't seem to age much throughout the movie. But he did a very good job on portraying Hughes' mental decay. I wasn't quite too fond on the way Cate Blanchett played Katharine Hepburn. She came on a bit too strong and slightly unlikeable. Maybe this was an accurate portrayal of Ms. Hepburn, but since I'm not very familiar with that actress, I rest my case. The rest of the acting was, as to be expected, very good.
I also liked the way the cinematography showed a lot of different tones in color, hereby indicating the different episodes in the time-line of the story. The CGI of the airplane could have used a little more detail, if you ask me. There was even a big error, easily spotted. When Hughes has his attempt to set a new speed-record, the close-up shots of the airplane (with DiCaprio in it) show an open cockpit. The more distant CGI-shots show a closed cockpit. Also DiCaprio's hair doesn't move while flying with an open cockpit (but when he crashes in the field, it does). A few other unrealistic shots are to be found when it comes to special effects, but I won't bother going into them.
I ended up liking this movie more than I expected, but it didn't have the same impact as, for example, A BEAUTIFUL MIND (which I consider to be a much better movie). So THE AVIATOR is just a great movie, but certainly no masterpiece.