Capone gets high on THE AVIATOR and dips into THE SEA INSIDE!!!

Now we're getting somewhere. The unfortunate life and times of Howard Hughes--businessman, filmmaker, engineer, playboy, pilot, visionary, target, victim, madman--are stunningly captured by director Martin Scorsese, in what is clearly his finest work since GOODFELLAS. This is the film Scorsese gets the Oscar for. If not, the fix is definitely against him. But Scorsese only gets half the credit. I sometimes let myself forget that before he became an international sex symbol and tabloid fodder, Leonardo DiCaprio was the finest young actor of his generation. I'll never let that slip my mind again. His performance as Hughes is nothing short of transcendent. As much fun as it is to watch the parade of famous faces portraying even more famous characters dash across Scorsese's fluid screen, I got impatient whenever DiCaprio wasn't on camera. You become almost addicted to his presence. In the half-twitch of an eye, he transforms from energetic tycoon who could carry the world on his shoulders to a quivering mess of a man who is scared of the smallest unseen spec of dirt. Of course, that was the great irony of Hughes' life: he could conquer the most powerful CEOs, politicians, studio heads, and beautiful starlets, but he couldn't overcome his fear of germs and illness.

In the deceptively simple and quiet opening shot of THE AVIATOR, we get our only glimpse of Hughes as a child. His mother is bathing him while making certain he knows how to spell and recognize the word "quarantine." I have no idea if this scene is based on fact or speculation, but as a filmed moment, it is so powerful that it resonates throughout the rest of the nearly three-hour film. You get a sense early on that Scorsese is having the most fun recreating the sequences of Hughes the filmmaker and seducer of the most glamorous that Hollywood had to offer. A great deal of the early part of THE AVIATOR focuses on Hughes filming his years-in-the-making 1930 war epic HELL'S ANGELS, at the time the most expensive film ever made outside the Hollywood system. (He also made the original SCARFACE and THE OUTLAW with Jane Russell and her mammaries.) The shots of Hughes actually in a bi-plane filming the spectacular dogfights will take your breath away. The special effects in this film are awe-inspiring and only really come into play during the scenes involving flying. Late in the film is a devastating plane crash (which, in real life, nearly killed Hughes) that is so realistic, I honestly believed they wrecked half of Beverly Hills to capture the event.

I'm a bit annoyed how much attention Gwen Stefani is getting for her two-minute portrayal of Jean Harlow, whom Hughes brought to the HELL'S ANGELS premiere. Of all the female characters in the film, she's the least interesting and of all the actresses in the film, she's the least impressive. I can guarantee you this film will receive multiple Oscar nominations, but the one I'll be hoping for is Cate Blanchett for her nail-on-the-head performance as the young Katharine Hepburn. She doesn't exactly look like Hepburn, but she captures her essence, quirky charm, and voice so perfectly that you nearly cry when she and Hughes end their lengthy relationship. Kate Beckinsale does a commendable job as Ava Gardner, another Hughes love interest, but in the same film as Blanchett, she appears to be standing still. Anyone would. While I'm in a fit of namedropping, let me also note the fine work by John C. Reilly as Hughes' long-time business manager Noah Dietrich. He appears sporadically throughout the film, mainly to tell Hughes he doesn't have enough money to carry out some crazed scheme, but I loved seeing him. Also on hand is Brent Spiner, Danny Huston, Willem Dafoe as a sleazy tabloid reporter, Frances Conroy as Hepburn's snooty mother, Jude Law as Errol Flynn (funny in one scene but it doesn't amount to much), Ian Holm as a professor whom Hughes relies on for all things scientific, and Alan Alda as Maine Sen. Ralph Owen Brewster, whose aviation bill nearly destroyed Hughes' TWA business by attempting to turn over the rights to all international air travel to Pan Am, run by the devious Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin, continuing his roll of great performances lately). THE AVIATOR is rated PG-13, so you only get to use the f-word once, and Baldwin's utterance of it is genius.

You might think with all of these actors and all of these storylines involving filmmaking, Hughes' love life, Hughes' aeronautic inventions and visions for the future of air travel (all of which were 100 percent correct, even if Hughes wasn't able to see many of his ideas through), Congressional hearings that threatened to wreck his business and his sanity, you might get lost in the shuffle. But Scorsese guides us through the life of this man with such skill and precision that getting confused isn't an option. And then there are the scenes of Hughes in all his mental illness glory. These are the scenes I didn't know Scorsese could pull off. A scene in a spotless men's room involving a door knob. Hughes' obsession about food preparation or a fleck of lint on a lapel. These weren't things that annoyed him; they paralyzed him. Throughout the film, you can't help but wonder about the things Hughes might have accomplished if his phobias weren't so prominent. Or perhaps they drove him. Who knows? But Scorsese clearly asks these questions as well. At the center of all this madness is DiCaprio who is as good as I've ever seen him. He really comes to life after the plane crash, when Hughes is in almost constant pain and seems to have lost some of his notorious good looks. Hughes was the kind of man who could only be defeated by himself, and he felt like he was losing the battle every day. THE AVIATOR is easily one of the most satisfying and fulfilling times I've had at the movies all year.

THE SEA INSIDE

One of the films being released in 2005 that is already near the top of my list to see is Joe (NARC) Canahan's KILLING PABLO with Javier Bardem as drug lord Pablo Escobar. The combination of this director and this seriously great actor are enough to give me goose bumps. Since Bardem's Oscar-nominated turn in BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, the guy has flown under the radar in a series of fantastic roles that have slowly built up speed for his career and my appreciation for him as one of the finest actors working today. Many of you probably didn't see THE DANCER UPSTAIRS or MONDAYS IN THE SUN, but you should. Not only is Bardem a chameleon, but he never fails to strike exactly the right note in each of his roles. Most American audiences probably hadn't seen Bardem in anything until his scary turn as the crime figure who hires Tom Cruise to kill witnesses in COLLATERAL, and that's too bad. Now Bardem has amazed me again in his latest, THE SEA INSIDE, which sets us at the end of a man's a 30-year struggle to die with dignity.

The film concerns real-life Spanish right-to-die activist Ramon Sanpedro (Bardem), who as a virile, active young man became a quadriplegic after a terrible diving accident. Now living with his sister, brother-in-law, and their teenage son, Ramon is trying to get the court's permission to be allowed to take his own life. "Life is a right, not an obligation," he proclaims repeatedly. What's amazing about Sanpedro is that he's not bitter or angry or evil to those around him. The more publicity his case gets, the more visitors come to see him, which cheers him up considerably. He writes a book about his experience, manages to fall in love a time or two, and seems to have an positive influence on everyone that comes into contact with him. In other words, he doesn't fit the profile of someone eager to die. What makes THE SEA INSIDE all the more moving is that the more you get you know Sanpedro, the more conflicted we as audience members become. We come to care about him a great deal, but we also side with his struggle for the right to end his own life. It's tough supporting a guy to these ends whom you end up liking so much. This is also the dilemma faced by his family and friends.

Despite the somber nature of its story, THE SEA INSIDE manages to keep things light and funny much of the time. Sanpedro's interactions with the young son of one of his frequent visitors are just plain hysterical. The kid is constantly poking Sanpedro's feeling-less legs, testing to see if he's faking or not. But beyond everything else, THE SEA INSIDE goes after your heart, and there's almost no way you won't be crying like a baby by the end of the film. At times, the film gets more melodramatic than it probably needs to, and Sanpedro's daydreams of flying over the land to reach the very sea where his paralysis originated might seem unnecessary. But the cumulative effect of THE SEA INSIDE is elation, and Bardem puts in another exceptionally gripping performance.

Capone

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