on april 12th , 1912 , the most astonishing shipwreck in the history of the world occurred . 
on that fateful night , the titanic sunk . 
now , more than 50 years later , a film has been made . 
and what a film that is . 
james cameron's newest movie is a landmark in storytelling , emotion , and special effects . 
it starts in the present , where bill paxton and his band of scientists explore the depths of the ship's wreckage . 
exploring an old chest , paxton comes across a nude drawing of a young woman . 
the drawing is televised and the woman ( gloria stuart ) whose portrait the painting is of comes forward and slowly but surely , the ship's story is told . 
leonardo dicaprio stars as jack dawson , a young man with a sketch book , a heart of gold , an intelligent mind , and not much else . he wins his ticket aboard titanic in a poker game , and is the perfect match for rose dewitt bukater ( kate winslett ) . 
she grows to love jack , but seems unable to escape the slimy clutches of her arranged fiance' , cal hockley ( billy zane ) . 
the film takes its time , and by doing so , makes us care about its characters , and shows us the full aspects of human emotion . 
the leads shine ; there is no bad performance ; in fact , these do not seems like performances at all , but genuine people , trapped on the doomed vessel , facing certain death . 
watching this film , i was amazed at how vivid and real these situations feel : the time rose and jack spend together at a third-class-party ; the naivety that jack feels when he skecthes rose nude ; the terror felt by all onboard , as certain doom turns people into both cowards and heroes . 
this , the most expensive movie ever made , $200 million , is destined to make its profit back , and then some . 
it also has more emotion and warmth than any other film this year . . even this decade . 
it is also yet another first : the first $200 million dollar romance , and every critic in this country will agree that it was indeed , money extremely . . very 
 . . well 
spent .