Never one to turn down a bargain, I collected several Evening Standards last week for the free cinema vouchers – one per day for Vue cinemas seven days hence.
Now some time ago, a similar offer was run with Odeon, and that time it took some effort to get to see any film at all. As usual with these offers, you can’t book in advance – you have to buy your ticket on the day. “Aha,” I thought, “What if I buy my ticket at lunchtime?”
Well it turns out you can, although I was not at all the only person to have also come to this conclusion. But five minutes later, I had my ticket to see The Aviator for that evening. The performance ended up being sold out, and although the queues were large, it wouldn’t have been impossible to get the ticket in the evening. Incidentally, this was the first time I’ve paid for a ticket to a film in the West End for a while. Well obviously I didn’t pay. But if I had, it’d have cost me £11! There’s a bargain. And to think that by Christmas this year, you’ll be able to own the film on DVD for less than that (allowing for a summer release in the shops, and then a sale).
But what of the film? Well it’s not bad. It’s certainly no Scorcese’s best, but broadly speaking it holds your interest for its three hour duration. Di Caprio is strangely believable as Hughes, and Cate Blanchett is wonderful at Katherine Hepburn. Somehow, I’d love to see her do a lifestory of Hepburn herself, who’s a thoroughly interesting character. In fact the planes were more interesting than Hollywood, with some good sequences, but somehow the computer graphics just weren’t right. It’s not that they weren’t good – although I think they could have been better. But I think to create a believability, you really need to shoot from “real” camera angles, and not repeatedly have the camera zoom into the cockpit until we can clearly see Di Caprio’s eyes. You can’t do the same kind of Steadicam work that Scorcese gets away with on land in the air with computers.
The supporting cast is great, with Kate Beckinsdale giving warmth to Ava Gardner, and the most of Hughes supporting workers looking after him sensitively. The toughest watch was the madness that began to overcome him in later life – in particular a drawn out sequence where we find Hughes living naked, and in some squalour in a screening room at his offices.
Is Di Caprio worth his Golden Globe? Probably. But then I don’t think that they should be considered that valuable a set of awards anyway.