‘The Aviator’ is an ace Scorsese flies again with Howard Hughes epic

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In theaters tomorrow

THE AVIATOR, directed by Martin Scorsese, written by John Logan, 169 minutes, rated PG-13.

The new Martin Scorsese movie, “The Aviator,” is the best film of the year, the picture to beat at February’s Academy Awards, the one movie everyone will be talking about – and rightfully so. Other films will challenge it – “Sideways,” “Kinsey,” “Million Dollar Baby” – but what Scorsese achieves here is the reason we go to the movies.

Seamlessly and with great panache, his hugely entertaining film, a biopic of the reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio), combines drama, action and comedy into such a compelling form, it lights the screen as if from within.

Most movies are a diversion. Too many are trash. But others you give yourself to. “The Aviator” is that kind of movie. It finds Scorsese, at age 62, directing with the nerve and verve of a young man. He’s back in top form here, which is a nice surprise considering the miscalculations and shortcomings of his last film, “Gangs of New York.”

Spanning 20 key years in Hughes’ life, the film is more concerned with capturing the essence of Hughes – his tight-fisted energy, the obsessive compulsive disorder that eventually gripped him – than offering deeper insights into the man, who remains here an enigma. It begins with a snapshot of Hughes in childhood, when he inherited his father’s fortune, and then plunges with a flourish into the heart of the story.

It moves through Hughes’ early years in Hollywood in the 1920s, when he struggled to film his war movie, “Hell’s Angels,” in spite of uncooperative weather conditions, millions of wasted dollars, and a shift in the industry from silent films to sound. Nevertheless, he triumphed.

It follows his intense, complicated love affair with Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett in a great performance) in the 1930s, when he was trying to break the air speed record and, in the meantime, dealing with the love and jealousy of a challenging woman.

It soars through the 1940s, when Hughes’ infamous fear of germs was beginning to sink him just as two men were working to do the same: Maine Sen. Owen Brewster (Alan Alda) and Pan Am’s Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin), who was using Brewster’s Washington muscle to prevent Hughes’ Trans World Airlines from becoming a competitive powerhouse in the international airways.

One of the best scenes in the movie – and the reason Alda will receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor – occurs when Hughes and Brewster spar at the heated Brewster hearings. It’s furious, marvelous, a clash of personalities that’s riveting.

Other scenes in “The Aviator” are equally masterful, such as the decadent recreation of the parties at the Coconut Grove; the harrowing scene in which Hughes takes to the skies to film an aviation battle from “Hell’s Angels”; the sly moment Hughes first meets Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale); or the scene in which Hughes woos Hepburn in a dreamy flight over Los Angeles.

The movie’s single best scene involves Hughes crashing a plane into the rooftops of Beverly Hills. At first, it’s played for comedy, but then Scorsese deftly turns it deadly serious. It’s just another moment to savor in a film filled with such moments. Here is your holiday gift from Hollywood. Enjoy. Grade: A

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, directed by Jonathan Demme, written by Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris, based on the novel by Richard Condon, 130 minutes, rated R.

Jonathan Demme’s “The Manchurian Candidate,” a remake of John Frankenheimer’s jittery 1962 Cold War classic about political brainwashing, finds its strength in its slaying of corporate America, with big business viewed here as the real threat to our country, much in the same way that the communists were feared in the original film.

Swapping out the original film’s backdrop of the Korean War for the Gulf War, the film follows Gulf War vet Maj. Bennett Marco (Denzel Washington), who discovers that during the war, he and other members of his platoon were implanted with computer chips that have brainwashed them into remembering events that never took place.

Of chief concern to Marco is Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber), the tall, good-looking Army sergeant who won the Medal of Honor for an act of heroism Marco believes never occurred. Now a vice-presidential candidate backed by his vicious, powerful mother, Sen. Eleanor Prentiss Shaw (Meryl Streep), Raymond is on a manufactured path to greatness.

He’s unwittingly being controlled by Manchurian Global, a mysterious corporate giant that has – shall we say – special interests in making sure that Shaw gets into the White House. They don’t want Shaw there as a mere vice president. They want him to be president, which means that somebody here is going to have to assassinate Shaw’s running mate so that Shaw can assume the ticket and ride a wave of public support into the top job.

As ever, Washington is so good, you almost take him for granted. Same goes for Streep, whose evil, ice-crunching senator is a fine nod to Angela Lansbury’s bristling turn in the first film, with the fearless Streep tossing in a bit of Hillary Rodham Clinton for good measure. Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.

THE VIDEO/DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those capped and in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Around the World in 80 Days – D

At Home at the End of the World – B+

The Bourne Supremacy – B

The Chronicles of Riddick – C-

The Clearing – C+

Collateral – B+

Dawn of the Dead – A-

The Day After Tomorrow – B

DE-LOVELY – B

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story – B

Dogville – B

Elf – B+

Ella Enchanted – B

Envy – D

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – A-

Fahrenheit 9/11 – A-

Fog of War – A

Garfield: The Movie – C+

Gone With The Wind (new on DVD) – A+

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – A-

Hero – B+

I, Robot – B+

Kill Bill Vol. 2 – B

KING ARTHUR – B

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE – B+

Man on Fire – B

Mean Girls – B+

NAPOLEAN DYNOMITE – B+

Raising Helen – C+

SHAUN OF THE DEAD – B+

Shrek 2 – B

Spider-Man 2 – A

The Stepford Wives – C

Soul Plane – D

Super Size Me – C-

The Terminal – D

The Triplets of Belleville – A

Van Helsing – B