The Aviator

Howard Hughes was a bigger-than-life personality, but most of us know only about his later years and his life-long fight against obsessive-compulsive disorder. Leonardo DeCaprio becomes Hughes and gives a wonderfully believable portrayal of his genius, perfectionism and eccentricity. He's Oscar material with this performance.

Martin Scorsese's direction leads us to understand Hughes and to like him in spite of his ego. Hughes began with a small fortune and turned it into a huge one. When you think of his multimillion-dollar expenditures on films and airplanes in the dollars of the 20s, 30s and 40s, it's almost mindboggling to watch him repeatedly tell Noah Dietrich (John C. Reilly) to spend it.

Cate Blanchett gives a great performance as Katharine Hepburn - she sounds, acts and moves like her. You'll love her portrayal. The movie delves into Hughes's relationships with Hepburn and with Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale). Both women were attracted to Hughes and the relationships are developed with respect.

The movie begins with Hughes as a boy, being warned by his mother about cleanliness and germs, in the days of cholera and other diseases. That scene sets the stage for the phobia that ultimately controls Hughes. For years he successfully fights it. DiCaprio's performance makes us like and pity Hughes at the same time.

It's a story extremely well told - one of genius, ambition, fear and madness. Hughes conquers the film industry and becomes a leader in the airplane industry. The movie ends shortly after WWII when he successfully stops the passage of a law granting the international skies to PanAm and opens the door for his company, TWA, to enter the market.

The movie is three hours long, but it never drags. One is caught up in Hughes's life from the beginning to the end. I left the theater with an appreciation of his genius and a real sadness for the man who conquered so much, but was unable to win the most important battle of his life.