Up in the air.
I finally got around to seeing The Aviator this week. While I wouldn't call it one of my favorite movies, I did enjoy it. Of course, the stand out of the cast was Leonardo DiCaprio, who did a wonderful job portraying legendary millionaire, filmmaker, and aviator Howard Hughes. The film focuses on Hughes' early life, when he filmed Hell's Angels and The Outlaw. (Thankfully, the film closes before the period of his life in which Hughes became a total recluse, addicted to drugs, wasting away, and suffering from various crippling phobias.) The film also pays some lip service to Hughes' work in the field of aviation, his endless quest for bigger, better planes, and congressional committee hearings that kept Pan Am from being named America's only international air carrier.
I am a huge fan of Katherine Hepburn, and Cate Blanchette, while she certainly doesn't look the part, did seem to capture her personality and way of speaking. The relationship between Hughes and Hepburn was a central one in the film, and Blanchette and DiCaprio played it with warmth and tenderness. For their performances alone, this film is worth watching.
Overall, I think this is a period piece, and Scorcese and his team did a deft job of capturing the period with costumes, sets, props, and styling. Though a pretty long movie, fun casting surprises (Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow, Jude Law as Errol Flynn, and Alec Baldwin as Juan Tripp, Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner) keep it interesting.
Also, I finally finished reading The Sun Also Rises this week. It's written in the usual, stripped-down style of Hemingway, and it tells the story of several dissolute expatriate friends making their way around Europe. The narrator, Jake Barnes, is a war veteran with a unique injury that has rendered him impotent. The woman he loves, a beautiful noblewoman named Brett Ashley, craves a physical love that he can't provide, throwing them both into the agony of wanting what they can't have. The two leg it around Paris and Spain with an odd collection of friends, which includes a rather annoying Jewish writer and Ashley's drunk, broke fiancee.
I didn't actually like this book, but I kept reading it because I wanted to finish it. All of the characters seem to be alcoholics, and they seem to lead lives bankrupt of any real meaning. I didn't really like any of the characters, and I kept wondering why Ashley and Barnes didn't get together. (I mean, he's impotent, but surely they could physically satisfy each other in some way. It seems rather foolish to throw away what could be true love just because the physical aspect takes some work.)
Although I realize that this is considered a classic, I finished it feeling largely unsatisfied. (Which, perhaps, was the point.) Although the book isn't particularly long, it takes a while to read it. The plot doesn't move quickly. Anyway, I've read it now, but I don't think I'll read any more Hemingway for a while.
I am a huge fan of Katherine Hepburn, and Cate Blanchette, while she certainly doesn't look the part, did seem to capture her personality and way of speaking. The relationship between Hughes and Hepburn was a central one in the film, and Blanchette and DiCaprio played it with warmth and tenderness. For their performances alone, this film is worth watching.
Overall, I think this is a period piece, and Scorcese and his team did a deft job of capturing the period with costumes, sets, props, and styling. Though a pretty long movie, fun casting surprises (Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow, Jude Law as Errol Flynn, and Alec Baldwin as Juan Tripp, Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner) keep it interesting.
Also, I finally finished reading The Sun Also Rises this week. It's written in the usual, stripped-down style of Hemingway, and it tells the story of several dissolute expatriate friends making their way around Europe. The narrator, Jake Barnes, is a war veteran with a unique injury that has rendered him impotent. The woman he loves, a beautiful noblewoman named Brett Ashley, craves a physical love that he can't provide, throwing them both into the agony of wanting what they can't have. The two leg it around Paris and Spain with an odd collection of friends, which includes a rather annoying Jewish writer and Ashley's drunk, broke fiancee.
I didn't actually like this book, but I kept reading it because I wanted to finish it. All of the characters seem to be alcoholics, and they seem to lead lives bankrupt of any real meaning. I didn't really like any of the characters, and I kept wondering why Ashley and Barnes didn't get together. (I mean, he's impotent, but surely they could physically satisfy each other in some way. It seems rather foolish to throw away what could be true love just because the physical aspect takes some work.)
Although I realize that this is considered a classic, I finished it feeling largely unsatisfied. (Which, perhaps, was the point.) Although the book isn't particularly long, it takes a while to read it. The plot doesn't move quickly. Anyway, I've read it now, but I don't think I'll read any more Hemingway for a while.
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