I’ve been to see this film this evening. My main comment: It was long. The first hour was pretty terrible, with some less-than-brilliant acting, dodgy editing (why is this film up for an editing Oscar?), and bizarre special effects. After that, though, it really picked up and became a very enjoyable film.

Leonardo diCaprio was never very convincing as Howard Hughes, but all of his little twitches and things were absolutely excellent. I believed he had an obsessive compulsive disorder, but it still seemed to be Leonardo diCaprio who was ill, not Howard Hughes. He definitely doesn’t deserve an Oscar. By contrast, Cate Blanchett was amazing, and does deserve an award. The costumes and backdrops were incredible, and with a better leading actor, and the kinks in the editing and special effects worked out, this could have been fantastic.

Having said that, it still wasn’t a very deep film, very much a case of ‘sit down, and watch the story’. There was an awful lot more that could have been explored in terms of the condition and Hughes’s feelings, and I would’ve liked a more definitive ending to the film.

Overall, it’s worth going to watch, but it’s not worth eleven Oscar nominations.