Rated (M) Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blachette, Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin, Jude Law

Just shy of three hours long, this sprawling, Martin Scorsese-directed biopic of Howard Hughes may leave some viewers crouching in an exhausted neurotic heap at its end, but the effort is rewarded by a superb film that carves a sympathetic portrait of a millionaire aviator both inspired and tormented by his obsession for the skies.

Scorsese focuses on the spectacular triumphs and failures of Hughes' early career (rather than merely his infamous decline), from his production of the hugely expensive World War 1 epic, Hell's Angels, to running a commercial airliner in brave competition with Pan Am, to his bid to build the world's largest military floatplane.

We first find Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) as a pushy 19-year-old who refuses to accept that his inherited fortune shouldn't buy him whatever elaborate fancy he dreams up. Yet this is no spoilt toff - Hughes' vision to fly bigger and higher and faster is as bold and ingenious as it is crazed. (It is also infectious, with his long-suffering colleagues remaining loyal throughout). But this mania for realizing impossible feats soon gets the better of Hughes, and as outside pressures mount to finger him for his extravagances with public money, he descends into self-inflicted paranoia.

You can't help wondering that Hughes wants nothing more than to escape the world of mere mortals, but the script, long that it is, never really explains what propels him onward. An obsessive drive as creative and yet debilitating as Hughes' deserves a little inquiring.

Playing the loves in Hughes' life are Cate Blanchett as Katherine Hepburn and Kate Beckingsale as Ave Gardner. Alec Baldwin is Juan Trippe, chief of Pan Am and Hughes' main rival.

Erin Tennant