Production year: 2012
Country: USA
Cert (UK): 12A
Runtime: 194 mins
Directors: James Cameron
Cast: Bernard Hill, Bill Paxton, Billy Zane, David Warner, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Jonathan Hyde, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Leonardo DiCaprio
The colossal melodrama that made James Cameron king of the world 15 years ago is back in 2D and 3D – and only the snobbish or the obtuse could deny its ambition, verve and entertainment firepower. Where Julian Fellowes is currently emphasising the class mosaic on television, Cameron made Titanic the backdrop for a wildly over-the-top weepie romance. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio now look foetally young as the poor little rich girl and the ordinary guy who sees her inner yearning. Meanwhile, on the soundtrack, keening Irish music gives way to Céline Dion's thumping power ballad. 3D gives a new perspective to the voyagers plunging away from us down the deck, turned up 90 degrees into a sheer wooden cliff-face. Cameron's macho excitement at the techno-engineering catastrophe is palpable.
