Published in Soaphistry E-Zine, February 1998

M o v i e R e v i e w o f t h e M o n t h: Titanic

by Stephanie Dray

James Cameron's Titanic is a good flick, but not for any of the traditional reasons. It's not well written. The villains are one-dimensional and the modern day aspects of the movie are contrived. There are also unsatisfying omissions in the plot larger than the holes that sank the ship. Still, you walk away from the movie glad that you went because where Titanic is strong, it absolutely shines.

Ultimately, it's a movie about a boat. The real love story is between James Cameron and the R.M.S. Titanic, and it shows. The painstaking detail, lovingly reproduced by the filmmaker, is breathtaking and the special effects will terrify and amaze you. Juxtaposing film footage of the actual wreckage onto the reproduction is magic to watch, and where the film seeks to educate, it does so without resorting to dry documentary style.

Cameron attempts to show the audience what happened on every part of the ship when it sank. Thus the romance between the two main characters, Jack and Rose, is used as a device to draw us into the experience. Their adventures lead us all over the Titanic and keep us on the ship until the very end. As a device, the love story between Jack and Rose works admirably well even though its purpose is obvious.

“Ultimately, it's a movie about a boat. The real love story is between James Cameron and the R.M.S. Titanic, and it shows.”

Rose, played by Kate Winslet, is an upper-class English woman who is being forced to marry a detestable, but rich, American. Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is a swashbuckling artist from steerage class, who falls in love with Rose the moment he lays eyes on her. He spends the rest of the movie saving her from herself, her betrothed, and the ocean.

These two young actors get everything they can out of the script. Their talents buttress the film where it is otherwise weak. DiCaprio looks several years too young -- and at least twenty pounds too thin -- for the role, but he manages to pull it off anyhow. He portrays Jack as both cynical and idealistic, and he brings such energy and intensity to the part that you believe it. You'll believe anything he says; he's just that good. Winslet has beauty and sass to spare. Her delivery is masterful. She adds a hint of mischief to her sultry lines, and puts enough venom behind an insult to make you wince.

The ending scenes of Titanic are hard to take, even though you know what's coming. Though the images are grim, the film never manages to wrap the audience's mind around the fact that more than fifteen hundred individuals died in the ocean that night. Because of the weak characterization, the audience never forms any bonds of affection with the other passengers. This failing of the movie is fortunate because, had we actually gotten to know some of those other people slowly freezing to death in the water, these scenes may have been unbearable to watch.

Titanic has glaring weaknesses, but if a film's quality can be measured by its imprint on the mind, Titanic is stellar. It will haunt you for days and spark your interest in the tragic history of the supposedly unsinkable ship.