Date: Fri 09-Jan-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Titanic-Winslet-DiCaprio

Full Text:

(rev "Titanic" for Now Playing)

Now Playing-

"Titanic" Is Just Too Engrossing To Be A Sink-Hole For Cameron

By Trey Paul Alexander III

During the summer, reviewers were surely sharpening their pencils (or powering

up their laptops) at the prospect of skewering Titanic , James Cameron's

problem-plagued production. While making the film, writer-producer-director

(and also one of the editors) Cameron, regarded highly for helming such hits

as The Terminator , Terminator 2 , Aliens , The Abyss and True Lies ,

contended with numerous delays and unforeseen events that would typically sink

any movie, let alone an aspiring epic about the famed ocean liner.

From the moment Cameron decided to make Titanic , there were well-publicized

accounts of food poisoning (cast and crew members were unwittingly fed a meal

laced with PCP and temporarily suffered the hallucinogenic consequences);

soaring production costs (approximately $200 million) that made Titanic the

most expensive movie ever made and necessitated two studios - Fox and

Paramount - to finance it; and a high-profile Fourth of July showdown with

Sony's Men In Black . When Cameron balked at the summer slot and moved his

three hour-plus movie to a December release, an ominous fate seemed to be

sealed (again, considering the film's main character was a ship that sank on

its inaugural voyage).

But any of us chomping at the bit to use punny headlines - "A Titanic Mess,"

"Voyage to the Bottom of the Box Office," "Titanic: A Three Hour Tour,"

"Cameron's Gate," etc (you can go on and on with these!) - will have to bite

our tongues because Titanic , currently the Number One flick in the country

and setting box office records for December and January, is emerging

triumphant.

What is so impressive about Titanic is not its financial success (who would

have thought a film with a $200 million price tag would actually make money?),

but the fact it delivers the goods: a thrilling, completely engrossing time at

the movies. Cameron and his crew not only serve up spectacularly conceived

effects sequences that plant us firmly and believably within the world of this

ill-fated 1912 voyage, but a considerable amount of the "goods" they deliver

come in the real heart and soul of Titanic - an old-fashioned love story

between a headstrong, aristocratic girl and a maverick, wandering dreamer of a

boy.

The story is framed by a modern-day exploration of wreckage of the vaunted

ship as a diving team (led by Bill Paxton) searches for an immaculate treasure

- a necklace called "The Heart of the Ocean" - thought lost in the depths.

Their investigation brings them into contact with one of the tragedy's

survivors, who proceeds to unveil more than just the clinical details of the

Titanic 's maiden voyage, but of her personal experience of the journey.

Via flashbacks, we follow the life of upper-class passenger Rose (Kate

Winslet), a young woman engaged to a rich, arrogant, upper-crust "gentleman"

(Billy Zane). As revealed in Rose's voiceover narration, the Titanic ,

embarking out of Europe, was meant as a testament to man's achievement, but

all she saw was a fortress, nay a prison, as all her glorious hopes would be

deemed insignificant once her arranged fiance became her husband.

Also on board is Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), a vagabond American artist who wins

a ticket in steerage and dreams of returning home to America. A star-crossed

encounter between the two - Jack talks a confused Rose out of tossing herself

overboard - begins an age-old romantic tale of people from different worlds

(albeit cast against a backdrop of impending doom) but yet of kindred souls.

The impassioned performances of Winslet and DiCaprio, even amid all the

technical wizardry of the climactic sinking sequence, are what propel this

Titanic .

Titanic is rated PG-13 for occasional profanity, intense mass destruction in

the climax, and brief nudity.