Top Movies of the Decade #89

89.   The Aviator

Here is the extent and measure of Martin Scorsese’s talent:  he directed three feature films in the ’00s,  and “The Aviator” is the worst of them.   It’s a grand, exciting, ambitious film that sometimes overreaches its grasp, about a grand, exciting ambitious man whose reach sometimes exceeded his grasp — so even its failures seem to work in its favor.   DiCaprio does the best work of his career here, presenting Hughes as a man of fierce intelligence and determination, battling fierce demons.     Cait Blanchett and Kate Beckinsale take turns as the women on his arm — Blanchett particularly memorable in her turn as Katherine Hepburn — while Alec Baldwin and Alan Alda make fearsome foes.