A Fun Movie

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2006)

Martin Scorsese keeps it relatively light with "The Aviator." There's none of the foul language or gratuitous violence that characterized his most famous work, "Goodfellas." He has crafted a very interesting character study of famous entrepreneur Howard Hughes, mogul of aerospace and maker of B-movies. You see plenty his involvement in both enterprises in this movie. Leonardo DiCaprio seems a little too boyish to play Hughes when he is in his forties, but he clearly is so passionate about his role that you forget the little minutiae such as age difference. He plays Hughes with so much energy that he makes the role all his own. It's pretty clear DiCaprio is having fun with this role. Those who dislike hammy acting may think of DiCaprio as over-the-top, but I liked it. His portrayal of Hughes' various neuroses and compulsions make this a very fun movie to watch, akin to Johnny Depp's portrayal of the equally odd and neurotic Ed Wood.
The other actors do a fine performance. Cate Blanchett is fun to watch as the upper-crust actress Katherine Hepburn. She seems to be having as much with her role as DiCaprio, and she's not afraid to ham it up as well. Kate Beckinsdale is fine as Ava Gardner, and John C. Reilly does a serviceable job as Hughes' long-suffering accountant.
Scorsese does a competent job trying to portray his version of Howard Hughes' life. He tries to cram down the message of an eccentric man with huge visions that no one else can comprehend. He seems mad when he tries to re-do and innovate his movies or his aircraft. Sometimes his compulsive behavior gets in the way of his dreams, but in the end he deftly fights off the skepticism of his collaborators or the threats from the competition, in the form of Pan Am founder Juan Trippe. He, like Tim Burton's Ed Wood, is an oddball who perseveres and usually gets his way in the end. Burton's is the better movie, however, because it does not have the gloss of triumphalism that Scorsese's movie does. Scorsese tries to portray Hughes as a sympathetic and ambitious individual, and while he may have plenty of ambition, he is not exactly a more sympathetic individual than, say, his airline rival Juan Trippe. Viewers can see through the attempted good-guy image that Scorsese gives Hughes to see the battle between the airlines as one of survival of the fittest.
This movie is pretty fun to watch overall. One should see it laid back on a sofa with a bag of microwave popcorn and a can of soda. Just sit back and enjoy the energetic performances. It's not high art, but it is decent cinema.