Don't be too hard on a film that should have been great

Rating: Null/10 (26 December 1999)

The search for a missing diamond is the excuse for this film to tell you a love story, and the love story is its excuse to tell you the story of Titanic. If you can let yourself be amazed by James Cameron's vision of both the boat and its sinking, and ignore most of what else the film is supposed to be about, you are in for a treat.
Of course, the movie isn't what it could have been, and should have been. For the first half, we see how a fair damsel (Rose, played by Kate Winslet) is rescued from a life of misery by another fair damsel (Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio). Rose is a child of the Upper Class and is being forced to marry Cal, perhaps the most evil film character since Darth Vader and the most one-dimensional creature dreamed up since Euclid defined the line in geometry. Now, as we all know, rich people, like Rose and Cal, are repressed and have no sense of fun, while poor people, like Jack, are jolly and streetwise and like to dance, dance, dance. Jack must save Rose from her snobbish fiance and show her what life is really about. And if she falls in love with him in the meantime, well, all the better.
This is not to say that the part of the film up until the disaster is wasted. It is here that we see Titanic in its glory, a sumptuous recreation of the most luxurious ship ever built. And we get to see a lot of it, too, from the bridge to the deck to first class to steerage to the engine room, mostly brought to us by means of Rose and Jack's merry frolicking.
Then Titanic runs into an iceberg. This, of course, is what we came to see: How will the sinking be depicted? And, by the way, what DOES one do when one is on a doomed vessel surrounded by freezing water and there is not a hope of being rescued?
By now Rose is trying to save Jack (now locked in the brig for a crime he did not commit), but they often seem more intent on saving their love than their lives. Which is more important is a matter of taste.
Yet surrounding them are "normal" people, people who are terrified of drowning but who nevertheless have to think of something to do to save themselves and their families. There are moments of panic, bravery, cowardice, regret, disappointment, and selfishness, and even ones of extreme warmth and nobility. And, as you watch, you are constantly asking yourself, deep down, how you would fare under similar circumstances.

It is these glimpses of human behavior under the most dire circumstances, combined with Cameron's amazing technical work, that make this film more than worthwhile.
It should have been much better, but it's still fine the way it is.