Titanic 3D

Director: James Cameron
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane
Time Out rating:

In the 1990s the Taliban jailed Afghan barbers for offering the ‘Titanic’, a haircut inspired by Leonardo DiCaprio’s in James Cameron’s 1997 epic. What a thrill it is to see DiCaprio in this souped-up re-release, a beautiful boy again (these days he looks like a puggish bit player in a ’30s mob movie). Titanic has fared better than his looks, shining up like a new penny in 3D in time for the centenary of the disaster. Yes it’s backside-achingly long with a level of melodrama to make Gone with the Wind blush, but distance drifts a puffy cloud of nostalgia over its faults.

We know the story ends badly but Cameron still sweeps us up in the romance between Kate Winslet’s rebellious posh girl and DiCaprio’s steerage kid. The 3D is dazzling, conveying the vastness of the ship in a way that will hit vertigo sufferers in the bladder. So too will Celine Dion’s theme song, which hasn’t improved with age.

Titanic 3D opens nationwide on April 7