I loved it. So sue me.

Rating: 9/10 (8 October 1999)

TITANIC provoked polarized reactions from its first screening. For many, it was the greatest movie ever made; some patrons were reliably reported to have seen it more than thirty times, and it became by far the highest-grossing production in cinematic history. But a fairly large minority of people, both in the average film-going public and among the critics, felt that the TITANIC craze was much ado about nothing, and many of them bitterly resented its bloated budget which they felt could have gone to far worthier films.
Two years after its release, the ardency of TITANIC fans is no longer quite so hot, but its detractors seem to grow ever more bitter, and thus a backlash has snapped out against the movie that has driven it from its former place at number one (!) in Internet Movie Database voting to a place completely off the top 250. It's become passe to like TITANIC, but I still like it. A whole lot, in fact. And while I don't think it ever belonged in the #1 spot, ranking it below mediocre stuff like THE PHANTOM MENACE (#199) or FORREST GUMP (#172) just isn't fair.
TITANIC is the story of two fictional passengers on the White Star Line's most famous vessel. Rose Bukater (Kate Winslet) is the child of a family high in social class but deeply in debt; Rose's mother (Frances Fisher) plans to rectify this by betrothing Rose to the rich but odious Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a penniless dock-worker who has won his ticket on the TITANIC in a poker game. Rose, having gotten a good look at just what her future with Cal Hockley will be like, attempts suicide, but is stopped by Jack, which sparks a brief but memorably passionate romance between them, under the shadow of the disaster we know awaits the ship.
If you had told me in 1996 that James Cameron would direct a movie which had no violence or chase scenes for the first two hours, I would have laughed in your face. I honestly had no idea that Cameron was capable of gentle scenes so rich with humor, affection, and grand spectacle. The greatest ship ever launched comes to life and we get the grand tour, from the massive, throbbing engines to the graceful swanlike prow. We get a sense of just how grand this voyage was for all participants, rich or poor.
Leonardo DiCaprio shouldn't have been the sole focus of this movie's popularity. Not that he does a bad job; he always delivers Cameron's sometimes strained lines believably and sincerely, and he does some fine work in a difficult late scene where he has to mix fury and love in the same moment, simultaneously kissing and berating Rose when she stays with him rather than flee in a lifeboat. But Kate Winslet's performance is the real meat of TITANIC. Her large liquid eyes can be heart-melting when she wishes. She perfectly simulates the mixed embarrassment and joy she feels as Jack teaches her to break down the inhibitions that her class and upbringing have placed on her. And at one point she delivers a kind of "stuck for words" expression that is so perfect that she couldn't have done it better if she really had forgotten her lines.
Billy Zane has a comparatively easy job as the villainous Cal Hockley, it's a one-note role, and Zane plays it that way. While he's certainly not the most interesting villain ever to appear on screen, comparisons of him to Snidely Whiplash are unfair. Hockley is not motiveless; he is merely one of those men who thinks of women as property rather than as human beings. There are millions of Hockleys in the world today, and you can see the wreckage they leave in their wake in any battered women's shelter. Hockley's character is perfectly realistic, just not particularly deep.
My favorite supporting actor in this movie was Victor Garber in the quiet and understated role of Thomas Andrews, TITANIC's shipwright. Of his many fine moments, the best is his reaction to Bruce Ismay's anguished protest, "This ship can't sink!" "She's made of iron, sir. I assure you, she can." Almost any other actor handed that line would have delivered it with contempt and sarcasm. But Garber does it more with a mixture of disbelief and real pity, as he realizes that the man he is facing is emotionally incapable of facing reality.
TITANIC certainly has many flaws. The framing story is sometimes mishandled, making the first half hour drag. The humorous wisecracks, while funny, are often very poorly timed and undercut the drama of the scenes. Since Cameron has to tell his story during the brief duration of the TITANIC's voyage, Rose's transformation from inhibited prisoner of class expectations to free and independent woman is too hasty. Cameron also at times seems intent on demonizing the rich just for being rich, a tad hypocritical for a man who risked and made millions on this movie. And the dialogue has more than its share of melodramatic lines and the odd cliche, though Winslet and DiCaprio deliver it so well that I generally didn't mind.
Still, there is great power in Cameron's invitation to become attached to something you know is doomed. Some refuse to take the risk, but not wisely; everything that you become attached to is doomed, sooner or later. You get two choices: meet your own doom without ever having been attached to something at all, or meet it with at least the memory of how good the ride was while it lasted.
Rating: ***1/2 out of ****.