Many flaws but still magical

Rating: 10/10 (8 November 2004)

OK, I have a confession:I was one of the fourteen year old girls who sobbed through many a viewing of Titanic,paid to see it at the cinema more than once, bought the video the day it came out and spent many evenings re-watching it. I read books about the film and about the actual history of the ship. In short I became obsessed. Sadly, or rather thankfully, I was not alone. Looking back now at the ripe old age of twenty I cringe at the memory of those days and although having only watched the film once in the last four years (truly) I still regard the film with affection. Of course, now I have distance to actually pick holes in it. Yes, the writing in places is slightly glossy, shall we say. The story is rather predictable and the whole rich girl falls in love with poor cheeky chappy has been done a few times before. The run up to the sinking takes one and a half hours and the sinking takes that time again. Some would say it moves too slowly and for the action loving film-goers out there I certainly take their point. The film does tend to take stereotypes to the max (for instance the treatment of third-class passengers and the snobbery of first-class). This said, I was not alive in 1912 and perhaps this is a completely justified representation of how things were! To me, (though I would never have admitted this six years ago) the iceberg never looked very real-again, having not seen many big icebergs I may be mistaken. However the film has something very rare. It has a certain kind of magic, a soul to it that makes fourteen year old girls sob into their pillows after watching it-I never actually did that...it was just an example.. The love story, although predictable and almost sickening in places has an innocent quality, awakening in the audience memories of their first loves and the naughty glances across rooms and boat decks. True, this is not Leonardo DiCaprio's finest hour (anyone who has seen him in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" will testify) but then the story does not demand an awesome display of acting qualities-just that he be life-loving with a boyish charm (and be able to hang onto the side of a ship for long stretches of time). Kate Winslet plays the sheltered high-society darling to perfection and the rest of the cast slot into place. Of course, the real lead character is the 'Ship of Dreams' herself and the art department certainly came up trumps there, as did the special effects team, turning the cinema/TV screen into a porthole peering into the past-except for the aforementioned iceberg (but then that always posed a problem)-the whole film makes 1912 come alive for a modern-day audience.
James Cameron certainly did his research and carefully intertwined established and accepted (to a certain degree) fact with his fiction. His film may have many faults but if you just sit back, let yourself fall in love with the ship, the characters, the romance and grandeur of the age, then the magic may just take you. If not, then just fast forward an hour and a half and see (in my personal opinion) one of the best historical recreations via special effects ever seen on film. So if you haven't watched the film for a while, or hated it when it was surrounded by excessive hype, revisit it. Not with the cynical air of a 'serious' movie-goer but with the innocent, easily-pleased-by-stunning-visual eyes of a fourteen year old and, go on, sob like a baby as Rose lets go of Jack, dropping him into the Atlantic for ever... it's all too much...