Flying Into the Past

Overslept and didn't really get to much this morning. I barely had enough time to get to the bank and blow up my back tire. I wanted to do the front one, too, but I couldn't get the cap unscrewed. I had to get my paycheck to PNC today. I have bills to pay and I've been putting it off because of the weather.

When I got in, I had a quick lunch of a peanut butter and apple butter wrap and a cup of home-made vegetable soup, then dashed off to work. Work was pretty much the same as yesterday - quiet when I arrived, very busy during rush hour. This time, though, there were no call outs, no bad weather, and we had plenty of help. My relief was on time, and I was in and out.

When I got home, I had leftover Chicken with Tomatoes and broccoli for dinner and watched the rest of The Aviator. Howard Hughes (Leonard DiCaprio) was a billionaire in the early and mid-20th century with a passion for three things - airplanes, starlets, and movies. He produced a huge airplane epic in the early talkie era (the World War I-set Hell's Angels) that was well received, but most of his other films, including the 1932 gangster tale Scarface and the 1943 western The Outlaw, got him into trouble with the Motion Picture Production Code. His relationship with witty Katherine Hepburn (a pitch-perfect Cate Blanchett) goes on the rocks when she gets tired of him dating other women; she finally decides she prefers tougher Spencer Tracy (Kevin O'Rourke). His beloved "Hercules" airplane is considered too big and elaborate to fly. The owner of Pan-Am (Alec Baldwin) is determined to drive Hughes' TWA out of the air and away from trans-Atlantic flights. And then, there's his fall into Obsessive-Compusive Disorder, which would eventually take over his life...

No doubt about it, this is harrowing stuff. It's definitely not for everybody, especially the second half that concentrates on Hughes' struggles with Pan-Am and his more troubled dealings with Ava Gardner (Kate Beckingsale). Blanchett gets the acting honors as a spot-on Hepburn (and deservedly won a Supporting Actress Oscar). If nothing else, this is interesting for familiar actors in small roles; in addition to O'Rourke (of cable's Remember WENN), look for Jude Law in a brief but fairly accurate scene as Errol Flynn and rock musician Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow at the Hell's Angels premiere.