"The most expensive movie in history" isn't really that exciting a crown to wear these days, since the mark is surpassed every other year or so, seemingly, but the distinction does mean that your film is going to get some attention. And James Cameron's Titanic is different from some past blockbusters in a few ways; the money appears to have been spent somewhat wisely, and the results are evident on screen. More than that, though, Cameron's screenplay attempts to include an actual story along with all the impressive effects.
"Attempts" is operative here, though, because the love story in Titanic, though a noble effort, doesn't quite work. The fault is due more to the screenplay than to the actors; though your reviewer is not a Leonardo DiCaprio fan, he didn't do anything particularly wrong, as struggling-but-ever-so-charismatic artist Jack, besides take the part. And Kate Winslet is convincing as ever as society girl Rose locked into an unwelcome engagement with a guy she (drum roll) doesn't love. The script is not at all kind to them, though; again and again, they're stuck with guy-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks or girl-who-has-never-really-lived platitudes, and your reviewer was often distracted by a sudden urge to smack his forehead. (No, no, his own, not Leo's, though that was tempting too sometimes.) Cliched scenes include snooty upper-class types trading snide remarks about Jack's background, a you're-not-to-see-that-unsuitable-young-man lecture, an exchange where Rose is really intrigued by Jack but feels like she has to be offended at the things he says...the screenwriter had clearly been perusing his 101 Fave Scenes From Romances when he wrote this stuff. And some of the things that do feel original aren't particularly welcome--a spitting contest? Showing that they're both art lovers at heart by trading notes about an "unknown" (uh, no, not in 1912) named Picasso?
The romance merits this much attention because Cameron devotes much of the first two hours to it; after the iceberg enters the scene, development of the romantic angle is mostly set aside. And there are things to enjoy in those first two hours, certainly; a party on the third-class deck contrasts effectively with an icy cocktail-lounge scene upstairs, and Winslet's exuberance feels real. A nude drawing scene (Winslet nude, of course; this is Hollywood) is convincingly done, with shyness on both sides and a sense that the scene does try to dramatize a trust between them (rather than serving as a device for gratuitous nudity, usually a safe assumption). The scene afterwards is not a highlight--your reviewer simply cannot see the appeal of losing one's virginity in a car--but there are certainly effective moments. It's just that there aren't enough to make the romance really work.
When the iceberg hits, though, the second plot--the sinking of the ship--kicks in, and it can fairly be said that this was remarkable. The appeal doesn't actually derive from already knowing the lovers' story and from following them around, because their part feels rather predictable; even when DiCaprio is chained to a pipe in a room filling up with water, it's hard to actually doubt that he'll be rescued. Similarly, the lovers go through several more perilous escapes, but they're less interesting than the fate of the ship in general. Rather, Cameron focuses on several minor characters in turn and follows them as the ship sinks, in order to avoid the faceless-people-dying element common in disaster movies. Prominent are the ship's designer, one of the crew guarding the lifeboats, and, particularly, the ship's captain; their stories are compelling because they feel like something that actually might have happened on the ship, not a Hollywood romance. And when we do go back to Leo and Kate, we can easily forget the earlier bad moments, since daring escapes lessen the need for acting, and the couple becomes more plausible than it had been earlier. A computer-generated reproduction of how the ship actually sank appeared early on in the film; watching it played out in full color is mesmerizing. It is a credit to Cameron's direction that the sinking, though spectacular, is not chaotic; the breakup of the ship and the general panic progresses gradually enough to build the suspense. And though there are anonymous people dying left and right, Cameron keeps enough focus on the stories we know and care about--and limits the time and space spent on horrible deaths--that the effects are not in danger of taking over.
The class element would feel overdone if it weren't true; the image of third-class passengers locked below decks while the first class boarded lifeboats would feel gratuitous in a fictional account, but it's simple fact here--and Cameron, to his credit, doesn't beat the audience over the head with it. Nor, for that matter, are the moments of pathos--a father telling his daughter that he'll have a seat in the "lifeboat for daddies," in full knowledge that there will be no such thing, for example--sprinkled in too heavily; the action moves too quickly for the various tragic partings to feel maudlin. When Cameron does stop the show, as it were, to let us watch things fall apart, it's strikingly effective; a string quartet that quixotically stayed on deck to the bitter end plays "Nearer, my God, to thee," and that sound drowns out everything else. There may not be a more poignant moment in film this year.
There is a third plot, not particularly interesting or effective; latter-day fortune-hunters are looking for a diamond that went down with the ship, they discover the drawing, and 101-year-old Rose tells the story. The themes-- greed and callousness--parallel those of the film nicely, but it doesn't work very well as a story in itself. It does, however, provide a rationale for including perhaps the most impressive part of all: actual footage from the actual ship, shot on the ocean floor, that give dramatic contrast and illustrate just how precisely the scale model that the movie built mirrors the original. Gloria Stuart is adequate as the older Rose, but it is to the film's credit that it doesn't bother with flashing forward too often once the real plot is underway.
If there is one thing that can be said of Titanic, then, it's that it could have been far worse than it is; Cameron does very well to tie all the stories together into a reasonably coherent 3.5-hour whole, without any feeling that the plots give way to look-at-these-neat-effects. Winslet's acting does carry much of the film--she plays the most interesting part, and gives DiCaprio credibility, no small feat--and it is her role that ties together many of the disparate plot elements. After all, it's she who breaks the class barriers by turning her back on the first-class lifeboat, and it's she who confronts the shallowness of the assumption that a diamond is a substitute for love. And hokey though it is, it's her character's maturation, more than the romance, that the movie depicts, and Winslet makes it reasonably plausible; we don't quite believe her more capable at the end than at the beginning, since she played her society girl with just a bit too much spirit to be an ornament, but her belief in herself at the end does convince. DiCaprio tries, to be sure, and when he's supposed to be a free-spirited kid he does fine; when he's supposed to be strong or comforting or otherwise inspire confidence, no. But he's just good enough to keep from distracting from Winslet, and once the ship starts to sink, that's all he needs to do.
Titanic, in short, is not a good movie that could have been great so much as a good movie that could have been dreadful with a less compelling performance from Winslet and less restraint from Cameron. A better script might have improved things, true, but the first half does what it needs to do despite bad dialogue, and the sinking is spectacular enough to make glitches forgivable. Though far from flawless, Titanic is a thoroughly enjoyable spectacle.
Duncan Stevens d-stevens@nwu.edu 312-654-0280
The room is as you left it; your last touch-- A thoughtless pressure, knowing not itself As saintly--hallows now each simple thing, Hallows and glorifies, and glows between The dust's gray fingers, like a shielded light.
--from "Interim," by Edna St. Vincent Millay
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews