The Aviator

Lulu asked about The Aviator. I thought this film should have won for Best Picture at the Academy Awards this year. I think Best Picture should be given to a big, sweeping epic of a film, and The Aviator certainly fits that description. Howard Hughes was a brilliant man and did much to advance the field of aviation. He also had a mental illness. The man struggled with obsessive compulsive disorder in a time when few medications or therapy were availble to him. Leonardo de Caprio delivered a fine performance of a man plagued by both genius and despair.

Mr. Hughes incredible airplane, The Spruce Goose, is now housed in a hangar in Oregon. Someday I will go to see it when I visit friends in Portland, and I've heard it is magnificent. In the meantime, rent The Aviator and enjoy the beautifully made film about the life of an American legend. The film won for best editing at the Academy Awards, and Leonardo won a Golden Globe for his performance.

The Saint

I've had house guests for the last almost two weeks, and an intensive landscaping job in my backyard to deal with. Add to all that the fuel pump going out on my car, and you can probably guess why I haven't been posting lately.

However, my guests and I watched some good videos during their visits. One standout is The Saint. Perhaps you recall the television series of the same name several years back starring Roger Moore. This film features Val Kilmer in the title role as the high-paid thief taking on various disguises for his deceptions, and naming them all after Catholic saints . Elisabeth Shue of Leaving Las Vegas fame plays a brilliant scientist, Dr. Emma Russell, who has worked out a formula for an unlimited source of energy.

The Saint is contracted to steal her formula, and thus begins the romance that propels them both through the rest of the film. Val Kilmer plays at least a dozen different characters of the Saint, and his expertise at bringing these characters to life on the screen is amazing. The nuances of his performance are a joy to watch, particularly in the scenes with Emma when glimmers of who the Saint really is surface as he falls in love with her. Elisabeth Shue is simply great as the first woman who really sees him, the first woman to meet his match.

The action takes place in England and Russia, and the spy action is fun to watch too. The soundtrack was beautifully written by Graeme Revell. I highly recommend this movie.