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On
9 December 1997
Well,
here it is, the movie that went $150 million over its $100 million
budget and has generated more gossip than Waterworld and
Spiceworld combined. James Cameron’s Titanic is cruising into
multiplexes as the most eagerly anticipated movie of the holiday season,
and the good news is that it floats. Both a lavish historic retelling of
the
British ocean liner’s collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and
an
old-fashioned epic romance, Titanic is surprisingly limber, light, and
entertaining for a flick that clocks in at over three hours. It’s not an
instant romantic classic like Dr. Zhivago or Gone With the Wind, but it
dazzles and diverts. The “unsinkable ship of dreams” is depicted with
thrilling D.W. Griffith-like showmanship by Cameron, who combines
technical wizardry with an involving human story, despite some maudlin
moments and contrivances.
Unlike the sober, documentary-like account of the ill-fated vessel
in A Night to Remember,
Titanic isn’t concerned with tracking an ensemble of seafarers. Instead,
it focuses on
the fictional characters of first-class passenger Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate
Winslet), a
sheltered seventeen-year-old society girl, and third-class passenger
Jack Dawson
( Leonardo DiCaprio), a young, penniless artist who wins his ticket in
a last-minute
poker game as the ship is boarding. Rose is being coerced by her
manipulative
mother (Frances Fisher) into a loveless marriage to a cold-hearted
heir ( Billy Zane);
Jack is free of responsibility and eager to return to America. The disparate
duo meet on
the night Rose attempts to jump overboard, and a forbidden friendship blossoms
into
a passionate affair. Their story is told by the 101-year-old Rose (Gloria
Stuart) to a
grungy treasure hunter (Bill Paxton) on the quest for a legendary
diamond that
allegedly sank with the ship.
The perfect director for Titanic would combine Cameron’s f/x virtuosity
with
John Sayles’ ability to create multi- character mosaics of the human
experience. The floating city inhabited by aristocrats and immigrants
could have
been a rich cinematic metaphor for the tumult that faced turn-of-the-century
America. Instead, Cameron relies on old movie magic; Jack and Rose’s
shipboard
romance feels like the old silent Perils of Pauline matinee serials. (As
the heavy,
Billy Zane is perfectly hissable--even without a twirled black mustache.)
And though the dialogue is at times cheesy (Rose: “You have a gift. You
see people.” Jack: “I see you.”), the stars have real chemistry. Winslet
is
particularly fine: radiant, intelligent, and plucky--she’s as strong a
Cameron heroine as Linda Hamilton (the Terminator films) and
Sigourney Weaver (Aliens). Many of the film’s best moments come
from secondary players portraying real-life passengers, like the brazen
“new moneyed” Molly Brown (Kathy Bates). And as boat Captain E.J.
Smith and master shipbuilder Thomas Andrews, Bernard Hill and Victor
Garber fill their small roles with tragic nobility.
Best of all in Titanic is the boat itself. Before we ever see his recreation
of the vessel, Cameron takes us the bottom of the ocean to see the
ghostly remains of the wreckage. In a long underwater tracking
sequence, the camera homes in on a crystal chandelier and a dilapidated
piano as we hear the faint sounds of ballroom music. It’s a beautiful,
haunting precursor to the thrilling finale of the ship’s inevitable collapse.
Titanic will take you by surprise as a romantic, fast-paced, entertaining
spectacle that deserves to make its money back. --Kevin Maynard
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