Excellent But In A Typically Hollywood Way

Rating: 9/10 (3 June 2006)

...the script is dire, the storyline obvious and the special effects not entirely convincing but there is something about this film that means I simply have to give it a good grade - I owe it to the 17-year-old girl I was when it was released who saw it four times at the cinema. I was addicted to it, as was my most cynical of friends. The combination of an already compelling story about one of the worst disasters in maritime history, attractive leads in Winslet and Di Caprio and a ashamedly gushy script means it assaults the emotions, captures the imagination and made it one of - if not the - biggest films in the history of cinema. A part of me does wonder if it was right to make a film about this, especially given James Cameron's egocentric obsession with it; my grandfather won't even watch it as he grew up in Ireland in the years following the catastrophe and it was very much mourned there. But the thing is that it was made and did its job very, very well. I bet you you know exactly what I mean!