Deciding that ocean liners are no longer the way to travel, Leonardo DiCaprio embraces flight in the new movie The Aviator.

Up, Up and Away
Leonardo DiCaprio captures Howard Hughes’ Vision & Mania in The Aviator

After the first collaboration between director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio—the bombastic and overly violent Gangs of New York—I was somewhat skeptical about the pair returning for another go around at a historical epic. To this reviewer, DiCaprio’s best work had been his pre-Titanic turns in the movies What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, This Boy’s Life, and The Basketball Diaries. After sliding into the frozen abyss of the Atlantic Ocean, his work has seemed, well, a little stiff.

Not to worry, Leo’s back in fine form with one of the best performances of the year as tortured obsessive millionaire Howard Hughes in Scorsese’s new three-hour biopic The Aviator.

The movie chronicles Hughes’ life from the 1920s through the 1940s when the young tycoon was actively involved in two fledgling industries: aviation and film. Still in his twenties, Hughes financed and directed the most expensive movie ever made when he created the WWI air epic Hell’s Angels in 1930. At the same time he was setting speed records in revolutionary aircraft that his company was designing and building.

Hughes was also notorious as an unabashed playboy and was regularly seen with some of the finest starlets of the day on his arm. His taste in women clearly wavered between strong personalities that challenged him and submissive types that he could control.

Despite his success as an aviation wunderkind, Hughes was a deeply troubled man with an obsessive-compulsive mental disorder that became more and more crippling as he got older. In one scene DiCaprio is attending a huge Hollywood soiree but becomes trapped in the men’s room until someone else enters because he is terrified of touching the doorknob. In this one scene you see how Hughes’ obsession with germs has become a “normal” part of his daily life.

The man’s wealth and power forced those around him to adapt to his increasingly quirky behavior and no one ever suggested that he get any sort of therapy for his disorder. The saddest part about the story is that if Hughes had been an ordinary Joe, he probably would have been forced to seek professional help.

Although The Aviator is clearly DiCaprio’s ship to captain, it is buoyed by numerous strong supporting performances. Cate Blanchett channels the spirit of Katharine Hepburn perfectly while avoiding the pitfalls of voice and mannerism mimicry that must have been tempting in portraying such a well known stage and screen icon. Cate’s Kate helps humanize Hughes for the audience.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes and Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow in the new film The Aviator.

Blanchett’s upper-crust Hepburn is delicately tempered by Kate Beckinsale’s beautiful yet brassy Ava Gardner (originally from Smithfield, N.C.). Like Hepburn, Gardner instinctively knew when Hughes needed a cold hard shot of the truth and she gave it to him regularly and in no uncertain terms.

When Scorsese calls, even big name actors are willing to take minor parts and the avalanche of cameos in The Aviator creates a movie within a movie. Jude Law plays a wonderfully caddish Errol Flynn while Willem Dafoe plays a pre-paparazzi tabloid photographer. Even some of today’s musical forces get in on the act as No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani portrays blonde bombshell Jean Harlow and songwriter Rufus Wainwright plies his trade as a 1920s swing balladeer.

The meatier roles are just as expertly cast as John C. Reilly plays Hughes’ long-suffering right-hand-man Noah Dietrich and Alec Baldwin plays Hughes’ aviation industry competitor Juan Trippe. Probably the best part is reserved for Alan Alda as Maine Senator Ralph Owen Brewster and the verbal battle between Hughes and the Senator during Congressional hearings is one of the highlights of the film.

In a year filled with cinematic biographies, The Aviator is right up there with Ray, and DiCaprio’s performance is every bit as convincing as that of Jamie Foxx. It will be interesting to see how the two films fare against each other come Oscar night. My prediction is that Blanchett will win the Best Supporting Actress Award while Alan Alda loses the Best Supporting Actor trophy to Sideways’ Thomas Haden Church.

On the other hand, it could be a night of many Oscars for Ray and its cast.

The Aviator is rated PG-13 for thematic elements, sexual content, nudity, language and a crash sequence. It is currently playing at Regal Cinema in Boone.