Deserves a higher rating

Rating: 10/10 (15 April 2010)

I have to say, when it comes to romantic flicks, people seem to go to extremes (and I admit, I've done it too, giving Titanic a ten). It seems you either love it with a vengeance and woe betide anyone who doesn't agree, or you hate it so passionately you would happily murder the poor actors and actresses simply for appearing in it.
This is ridiculous. While I do enjoy the film, I have no problems with people who didn't, and if they dislike the romance then that's their opinion, which they're entitled to. Seriously, why turn it into something? Personally speaking, this is still one of my favourite films, and I saw it years after it came out (as always) so the success had ebbed away. But unlike so many, I didn't go with expectations. All those people who went for a documentary on the disaster, or endless shots of old Leo... I saw it without expecting anything. I didn't give a monkeys about DiCaprio, I knew next to nothing about the actual disaster, and I was simply hoping it deserved its record-breaking 11 Academy Awards. And I thought it did, frankly.
The acting was top-notch, the music was wonderful, the visuals were stunning. While the romance was indeed stereotypical and contrived (and I gave this a ten), it was still pulled off excellently, and I really did feel for the character, which is a mark of a good film. I don't think that the ending spoilt the film, which many people think it did. I am not saying that they are wrong, or that I am right, because that's not true. It's about opinions. I just thought it was a nice touch - a sort of backhanded happy ending to round off an otherwise rather depressing Now-they'll-never-see-each-other-again scenario. I thought the film had many, many memorable moments, and the disaster itself was not downplayed - it fitted smoothly around the romance, which incidentally helped to give a sense of perspective to the whole thing. Many couples really will have been torn apart that night, albeit probably not from different classes. The sheer drama unfolding on-screen cannot really be questioned. It can be disliked, of course. But it is good acting nevertheless.