You can either love it or hate it

Rating: Null/10 (7 March 2003)

Titanic, being the most expensive, most publicized, and highest grossing film of all time (at least as of 2003, who knows what the future holds) is one of those films that can either be loved by soft-hearted individuals who love a good story or a well-made piece of cinema, or hated by movie buffs who consider it 'over-rated'. Personally I think it's a little of both.
Essentially the real winner of the film is obviously the cinematography and the visual effects; the sinking of the ship is truly a masterpiece of realism and is a shocking perspective on what the sinking of the actual ship might have been like.
But aside from the technical side, the film is nothing more than a simple love story, and it is actually quite badly portrayed; the terribly over played comments on class structure and the neverending possibilities of love clash extremely sharply with the very under played relationship between Jack and Rose; there is never a spark between them, and it seems such a short period of time between Jack talking Rose out of killing herself and the two suddenly copulating in the back of somebody else's car in the hold of the ship. It's almost as if James Cameron couldn't decide which elements of the film to over-dwell on and which to just touch upon, because the development of the relationship is one that he could easily have stressed more definitely.
The performances as well leave something to be desired. While I have been a long-serving advocate against the talents of Leonardo DiCaprio, this movie is in my opinion, easily his worst. He lacks all the elements that make up a classic film character; charisma, empathy and credibility. As so often ruins a good performance, throughout the entire movie, he is making such an obvious effort to act and it is so apparent visually that the character is lost, and apart from that, it is not a difficult role to play. On the other hand, Kate Winslet is better although not brilliant; she does have charisma and empathy and we can enjoy the character of Rose a lot better. The minor characters are another good element of the film. They don't sparkle but they fill in the story nicely, as minor characters are supposed to do. Jonathan Hyde is excellent as the ship's designer, I felt truly sorry for him when the news is finally broken to him that the Titanic is not, as previously thought, unsinkable.
Overall, Titanic is a behemoth of film-making, but that is not quite enough to make it a true classic. It seems too cute, too much like a daytime soap opera to make it a milestone of cinema. Titanic is impressive, nothing more. And while I quite enjoyed watching it, it can never be more than a three star film for me.