spectacular film spoiled by a contrived romance

Rating: 7/10 (17 September 2006)

It is difficult to imagine an actual event more dramatic than the story of the Titanic. The true story was infinitely more interesting than that portrayed in the film, and included in the actual account were love stories worth telling. There was no need to invent anything, much less one in which the couple make love in the back seat of a car. The scene in which the hero is chained to a pipe, freed by a single axe blow, and then swims through the frigid water was preposterous. The portrayal of the sinking was spectacular, and gripping in every way. It was movie making at its very best. The ending of the contrived story in which a multimillion dollar necklace is tossed overboard should have been the fate of the contrivance.