The Aviator

If forced to take a position I’m sure I’m not a purist, but certainly the inaccuracies about Kate’s life bothered me to some extent. No, she and Hughes weren’t together for six or seven years, as the film suggests. No, she didn’t end their relationship over Spencer Tracy. And no, I don’t believe she was ever the glamorous, preening, press-obsessed person the film makes her out to be.

And as for Cate’s Kate, because if I’m honest, that’s the main appeal the film had for me. Blanchett essentially does a good impression of Hepburn, but fails to capture her spirit. She seems always to be trying too hard, putting in far too many mannerisms and reciting far too many stock phrases (Logan’s fault, actually) for the performance to feel natural. Still, it is an exceptional performance, and deserves the Oscar nomination she will probably receive. I admire her performance in the same way I do Nicole Kidman’s in The Hours: neither really portrayed the real woman, but both did a hell of a job playing a part.

But on some level you have to get over the fact that this isn’t exactly Katharine Hepburn, and this isn’t exactly Howard Hughes’ life, because really, how could it be? and meet the movie on its own terms. Logan’s script is just average, full of snappy lines ready to be plugged in to trailers and advertisements. But Scorsese and DiCaprio craft out of it an intense and often uncomfortable character study of an obsessive man with the money and power to shape the world according to his own narrow vision.

Right now, it edges out Sideways for my favorite film of 2004 with a shot at a Best Picture nomination. If the Oscar goes to Scorsese as an apologetic lifetime-achievement honor, I think it’s still well-deserved. DiCaprio, by no means a personal favorite, turns in probably the finest performance of his career thus far. It’s a beautiful film and I was strongly affected by it, even if it is only a version of the truth.