The Aviator

The Aviator is a glossy, standard bio-pic with good performances and scenery all around, saved by Cate Blanchet's superb incarnation as Katherine Hepburn.

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio's take on the Howard Hughes story puts the billionaire's obsessions over technology and film at center stage, and adds some peeks into his compulsive disorders for dramatic tension. As with Ray, Hughes' problems are made out to stem from childhood, with a mother's warnings about cleanliness apparently erupting into psychosis during times of stress.

Except for that explanation, there's not much to the characters in the film. Hughes is (probably) rightly shown to be a cad as he works his way through a bevy of Hollywood starlets, settling for a meaningful romance with Hepburn (who spurns him for Tracy) and then being toyed with himself by Ava Gardner.

All of which is mere prelude to Hughes political fights with the goverment over millions misspent in aircraft design which never made it into actual combat.

As I said, standard bio-pic material.

I happened to watch the first half-hour of Goodfellas and the contrast to The Aviator couldn't be clearer.  The former has exuberance, humor, striking characters, and a high-voltage story. The Aviator is merely a nicely paced evocation of Hughes' time and psyche. This isn't to contrast one of Scorsese's great film with his mediocre, but to point out that his latest just isn't much fun even on its own.