Ship happens

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2006)

When I heard "Titanic" and I heard "DiCaprio" I thought "Romeo and Juliet 2". How wrong I was! James Cameron takes his amazing film making and, with maybe a weaker screenplay than in all his other movies, he makes this impressive and unforgettable exercise of construction, and I mean building the ship and building a rising climax that will go with you after watch the movie. The story jumps from the predictable stuff (you know the ship sinks, that never changes) to the heart and soul of characters that have no idea of their future, for good or bad. All starts with a simple drawing, and from that simplicity we move to jaw-dropping chases in the guts of the ship, hear-breaking love moments and many extras falling. The rhythm is a little bit slow in the first two acts, but from the moment the iceberg and the ice enter in scene, wow, here is Mr Aliens again. Kate Winslet moves from classic first class lady to Lt Ripley's daughter, the ship of dreams turns into the bath of nightmares, the history accuracy fights against Cameron's Machiavellian film making, and at the end, you just cry in joy, sadness and suffering. The best sequence of all this? The ship splitting is awesome, but Nearer my God to thee is a heart-touching, tear-jerking, whimper moment, with that Irish mother cuddling her children before die, the Captain facing his destiny and the band playing to the very end. "Gentlemen, i's been a privilege being with you tonight". Maybe that line and not "I am the king of the world" Cameron should said in the Oscars.