The Aviator

I saw this last night and for the most part enjoyed it, though it was very long and could have taken some editing.

Leonardo DiCaprio was excellent as Howard Hughes, the movie mogul and aviation fanatic, who descends into madness when his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder takes over. There are some impressive flying sequences, if you are into that kind of thing. Cate Blanchett also excels as Katherine Hepburn, Hughes' one time girlfriend. Kate Beckinsale also appears as another girlfriend - Ava Gardner.

The story follows Hughes from his obsessive labour of love in making the film Hells Angels over a period of years, to meeting Katherine Hepburn and the development of speed planes, spy planes and the Hercules, whilst making movies such as The Outlaw with it's risque footage of 'mammaries'.

Any film depicting the life of a figure such as Hughes is going to be long, and in danger of not having a 'story' more a sequence of events. By focusing primarily on Hughes' Aviation passion the film is perhaps 'tighter' than a regular biopic, and the director (Martin Scorcese) had the opportunity to go into more detail in Hughes' life, but judging by the length of the film (just under three hours) perhaps a little less detail would be better.

8/10