I hadn’t expected to actually watch this film ever with the amount of knowledge (and equally the amount of interest) I have about Howard Hughes not even filling a tablespoon. In addition to this was my not so positive opinion of Leonardo DiCaprio. Alas when our movie of choice, Closer, was disappointingly not screening, despite what the UCI website had indicated, it came down to this movie or Alexander. Hmm, tough choice. Did my dislike of Colin Farrell (somewhat positively balanced out by an appearance by Angelina Jolie) outweigh my dislike of Leonardo … Well, for whatever reason, we went with The Aviator.

I’ve definitely seen worse films than this. I think it was a little overlong (nearly reaching 3 hours) but an admittedly impressive performance by Leonardo definitely made the film. I’m not so sure about the supporting cast: Alec Baldwin, as an arch-nemesis, was a little laughable; Cate Blanchett was brash as Katharine Hepburn; and Kate Beckinsdale was okay as Ava Gardner. Perhaps I’m being too critical – I know that Cate has already received her Golden Globe nomination so she must have done something right.

Overall, I’m not sure how accurately the film portrayed the life of Howard Hughes as I’m not that familiar with his life as I’ve already mentioned. People tell me that he became quite horrible in the end due to his eccentricity so I think there was definitely sugar-coating in the movie as at worst you’ll come out feeling pity for him. My only other bone of contention was that I’m not sure if the movie really ended. Perhaps I’ll just have to go and Google “Howard Hughes” to find out exactly what happened to him in the end.