Ray, Kinsey, The Aviator: Life Stories - Page 7

The generic challenge, then, is always to see the flawed human in the hero and vice versa and to acknowledge his achievements while keeping them in perspective. Of course, it's extremely hard for a movie structured as romance to present what we would think of as a psychologically accurate portrait, no matter how many factual details are included. Pictures like Ray and Kinsey and The Aviator give us too much reality for the hagiographic approach to function but aren't truly committed to replicating what actually was, either. They don't lie about their heroes' well-publicized warts but they present a softened view of the warty men in the glow of their accomplishments, as if actual men could be synonymous with what they have come to mean to us. (I think a better approach would have to be much more offhanded about the subject's talent and fame, without the storybook sense of awe. Kinsey comes closest.)

The rare script, such as Robert Getchell's for the Patsy Cline story Sweet Dreams (1985), starring Jessica Lange, strings together the biographical events in a way that not only gives the star a coherent character to play but brings that character out in the romance episodes. Cline's ascent to stardom while battling with her mother and her husband intensifies without distorting the conception of the character. The character and the life story become two terms for the same fact, which feels undisguisedly factual. You cannot say as much of De-Lovely, Ray, Kinsey, Beyond the Sea, or The Aviator. A bumper crop is not always a good thing.

You can find this review and a lot besides at The Kitchen Cabinet.

Alan Dale is the author of What We Do Best: American Movie Comedies of the 1990s and Comedy Is a Man in Trouble: Slapstick in American Movies.

Article Author: Alan Dale

Alan Dale earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. He currently works as a corporate tax attorney in Portland, Oregon.

He is the author of What We Do Best: American Movie Comedies …

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