Amelia (PG)
Mike:
Mike: Tonight I am reviewing Amelia
, the story of the famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart, who disappeared during an around the world flight.
I am a huge aviation buff and I was very excited about this movie. The trailer made the film look epic. Unfortunately this film was a disappointment. Somehow they took a story that could have been as gripping as Titanic and made it slow and somewhat boring. Like Titanic, you know how this is going to turn out. But unlike Titanic, you don’t really become invested in the characters. Something is missing.
The photography is beautiful and there is great attention to detail. The use of planes was very accurate, especially the Red Lockheed Vega for her solo transatlantic flight and the Lockheed Electra used in her ill fated final flight. Fans of antique airplanes and aviation will be pleased.
The film has a great cast with bad dialogue. People speak the way that people write, so this is very awkward. I think the director was trying to imitate a movie of the time period, but it doesn’t have the charm of those movies. This movie owes more to The Spirit of Saint Louis than The Aviator, in terms of aviation biographies. Spirit is a biography of Lindbergh starring Jimmy Stewart. It’s a little stiff, too, but like this movie, the insight it gives you may be worth a little slowness.
This is a biography, but maybe too much of a love story, for there is very little chemistry between the leads. I think both Hillary Swank as Amelia and Richard Gere as George Putnam doing nice acting jobs, but they just don’t seem to fit together. I hate to say it, but Gere may be a little to handsome to play a guy who moons over a very average looking woman the entire film. Hillary got the Earhart look down, but Gere looks almost nothing like the real Putnam.
Swank does a great job of inhabiting the character of Amelia Earhart. The academy award winning actress doesn’t disappoint. If anything in her performance is disappointing, it’s the things she is forced to say. Despite the dialogue, I felt that Swank inhabited Amelia and will probably always be the image I have of Earhart going forward.
I am a sucker for period pieces, especially the 1930’s. This movie gets all the physical details correct. The sets and clothes are right on. It looks like director Mira Nair
As always, if the movie is based on a real person or true story, then I have to do some research. It looks like the movie is very factually accurate, but this doesn’t necessarily mean interesting. I will say that I learned a number of things. Amelia presents the facts as known, hints at some things that might have happened, but doesn’t stray enough to offer up any new theories on Earhart’s disappearance.
I rate this movie 2.5 overall and a 2.5 for biographical drama. Being a fan of famous pilots, I enjoyed the movie, but watching is a little like going to school. You will probably learn a few things, but you might find it a little dry and boring.
