Ironically, "The Aviator" — which opens exclusively today in Park City's Holiday Village Cinemark theaters — is at its best when the title character is flying. When that character is on the ground, the film isn't nearly as successful.

Of course, the same probably could have been said of the title character, Howard Hughes, whose various scandals and eccentricities have become the stuff of legend (including local legend).

Never one to shy away from such things, however, filmmaker Martin Scorsese and screenwriter John Logan have tried to show us what the real Hughes was like, warts and all — that is, eccentricities and all, including his various phobias and paranoid behavior. But the film occasionally strays dangerously close to campy "Mommie Dearest" territory.

As its title suggests, "The Aviator" examines Hughes' various air-travel ventures, but the film also delves into his relationships with several Hollywood actresses, among them Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett), Ava Gardner (Kate Beckinsale), Jean Harlow (Gwen Stefani) and Faith Demergue (Kelli Garner). And at least the first third of the film deals with his years-long battle to mount his epic World War I drama "Hell's Angels," even though the film — the most expensive of its time — nearly bankrupted the young Texas industrialist.

That's already plenty of material, but the film's lengthy final section explores Hughes' work with TWA, which put him at odds with airline magnate Juan Trippe (Alec Baldwin), as well as Ralph Owen Brewster (Alan Alda), a former U.S. senator depicted here as being in Trippe's back pocket.

This is a very different film than Scorsese's previous effort, "Gangs of New York," but the filmmaker seems to have been equally obsessed with nailing the look of the depicted time periods (as well as the color scheme of clothing and filmmaking at the time).

But he's so consumed by these details that the storytelling sometimes suffers. "The Aviator" feels a bit incoherent and extremely unfocused — not to slight cinematographer Robert Richardson, who is one of the film's real stars. So it's fortunate that Scorsese cast Leonardo DiCaprio, whose performances in this film and "Catch Me If You Can" demonstrate his range, and that he can be credible in more adult roles. And Blanchett puts in such a serious bid to steal the movie out from under him that having her star in a three-hour "Katharine Hepburn Story" might have been more welcome.

For the most part the supporting cast is consigned to cameos, some of which are too distracting. Jude Law's brief stint as Errol Flynn only pads out an already-too-long film.

"The Aviator" is rated PG-13 for profanity, violence (some fisticuffs, as well as a horrific plane crash), gore, vulgarity, brief male nudity, brief sexual contact and use of some racial epithets. Running time: 169 minutes.

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E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com