Normally, I wouldn't spend a lot of time and effort going into the details of a movie I'd watched over the weekend. But yesterday I rented a movie I swore up and down I would never see because it was so praised and panned and generally hyped - I'm usually disappointed by movies like that so I tend to avoid them. But I caved in yesterday afternoon, after hearing yet another review by an average movie watcher who said it was worth watching, at least once.
So I picked up The Aviator after my walk yesterday, and watched it last night. And I honestly thought it was pretty good.
I'm not a huge Leonard DiCaprio fan - I'm not one of the throngs of people who think he's the hottest thing since boiled water. I find him kind of scrawny and washed-out, and I can't say that I think much of his acting. But occasionally he'll surprise me, like in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (I didn't much like Titanic, though.)
Ten minutes into the movie, I forgot who it was I was watching - instead, I was watching the story of a ambitious man fighting against a disorder that threatened to take over his life (man, I should get a job writing these things!) DiCaprio did an excellent job in this role, capturing all the nervous tics and behaviors of someone with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
(My only - and I feel like a traitor admitting this - complaint? In the first scene in the Coconut Grove, I don't much care for the singer's voice. I've watched the scene four times, and in his defense, it's mostly the song and style I don't care for because I find his voice ill-suited for it. Normally, I think he's phenomenal and I have three of his four CDs in heavy rotation on my iPod. I just don't care for the piece in the movie.)
