I tried to watch this, I really did. But right from the start, the film was not compelling to me. Bill Paxton is one of the first faces you see, and although he seems to have some gifts of late in directing his own films, he is a TERRIBLE actor. I could see no reason at all why an ancient old lady would take a helicopter ride out to the site of the wreck in order to tell her story. What, don't you have a TELEPHONE? The story takes place in 1996 after all. Leo Dicaprio is not a bad actor really, but the love story was the usual claptrap out of the Hollywood script bin, and was completely unrealistic. How the hell this won best picture is beyond my comprehension. James Cameron's The Abyss and the original Terminator had more compelling characters and better presented love stories, frankly. Dances with Wolves (another overrated best picture) was a better film than Titanic, but I honestly think they both won best pic only bacause audiences were surprised at themselves for being able to sit thru 3+ hours of film.