MAKE ME LIKE: Titanic

Titanic movie

Make Me Like is a new series we’re trying out where we Vultures talk about popular things that we are supposed to like but don’t. It’s up to you readers to convince us to see the error of our ways! Be gentle, though. This isn’t ragebait. 

I’m not sure which came first – my ambivalence to Leonardo DiCaprio, or my apathy to Titanic. I was also rather unimpressed by Leo in Romeo & Juliet, and The Great Gatsby sealed the deal – or so I thought, until I watched The Wolf Of Wall Street and it all clicked. I suddenly got why people like Leo. So I realised Titanic must be the problem.

Kate Winslet is one of my favourite actresses, and she usually has the power to make me fall in love with any film that she graces. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind is a film I hold close to my heart, only getting better with every dozen times I watch it, and I thought no one more deserving of a BAFTA, ever, than she was for her supporting role in Steve Jobs. Yet somehow she couldn’t work her magic on Titanic.

I can’t even blame the director, James Cameron. Of his work, I’ve loved Terminator and Terminator 2, and although I have a lot of reservations about the half an hour of Avatar that I’ve seen, I think everyone did – and animation isn’t my thing really.

As for films based on real life stories, I’m a sucker for them. I didn’t know the plot of Rush when I saw it, and I’ve never held a significant interest in the history of Formula 1, but I cried a good three times on my first viewing. The impact of it wasn’t lost on me second time around, where I upped the teary outbursts to five, and no matter how many times I put it on to seek some form of inspiration whilst also procrastinating, it remains as powerful as ever. I now cry for the majority of the second half of the film.

No film beats a real life masterpiece in my eyes, Apollo 13 being another favourite of mine, and this brings me no closer to understanding why I don’t like Titanic.

I like soppy, pathetic, romantic films. On paper, Titanic ticks all the boxes for something I might like, but it doesn’t work for me. The couple’s romance feels far too wishy washy to me, I spent most of the time thinking they were both a bit annoying, and I didn’t particularly care about anyone in the film. Of all the great and powerful stories that could have been told about people on that boat, a flimsy romance was chosen.

Though I expected to be deeply moved, emotionally challenged, and, having watched it, ready to seize the day and be grateful for everything I have, Titanic left me deeply underwhelmed. It felt like the potential for a great story was wasted on a bunch of nothingness.

And, no, I didn’t cry.

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