The Aviator

Movie: The Aviator. It took me about an hour in to stop being irritated by Hughes’ nasally voice and I found the Hollywood talk and the airplane mechanics talk that filled much of the first hour boring. I like to fly but the only interest I have in airplanes is that they stay in the air when I’m on them and don’t crash and leave me stranded with the weirdo Lostaways. The entrance of Cate Blanchette added a personal factor and the movie took a definite upswing. But, Mrs Fisher from Six Feet Under and Mr Tate from Soap were Katharine Hepburn’s parents? That explains something. As Hughes’ illness progressed, Leonardo’s portrayal of him intensified and I thought he did a marvelous job showing how difficult it was to deal with obsessive compulsive disorder without medication, without much help and trying desperately not to let others (particularly his enemies – hello Alan Alda!) see it. I think this may have lost the Oscar because it seemed to be trying too hard to be a film of epic proportions. At nearly three hours, I was starting to think it would never end. Overall, flawed, but very good.