Hilary Swank Movie:

Editorial Review:
With her lanky Middle-America looks and her toothy grin, Hilary Swank is a natural fit for the adventurous figure of Amelia Earhart, the world's most famous aviatrix. Amelia ticks through the major achievements of Earhart's career: her 1928 flight across the Atlantic (as a passenger, not a pilot), which made her the first airborne woman to make the trip; more triumphantly, her 1932 solo transatlantic journey; her marriage to publisher George Putnam; and of course the mysterious 1937 around-the-world flight that ended in her vanishing, with engineer Fred Noonan, somewhere near Howland Island in the mid Pacific. With Swank in her pilot togs and director Mira Nair at the helm, the project would seem to have the ingredients for success, but the resulting film is a truly dull, almost featureless affair. The big flights themselves have innate appeal, but otherwise the emphasis is on Amelia's love life, shared between Putnam (Richard Gere) and the dashing Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor)--who, the film clumsily keeps reminding us, is the father of Gore Vidal, seen here as a precocious tyke. A smidgen of Amelia's proto-feminist attitude is included, including her intriguing take on her marriage agreement, but nothing actually cuts deep or generates interest. After a while Amelia becomes a series of events, told with less excitement than the average documentary on the same subject, albeit with prettier photography. --Robert Horton

Amelia [Blu-ray] Reviews:
Beautiful but not compelling
2009-11-06 - Amelia is a biographical drama about the life of Amelia Earhart, the famous female aviator of the 1920's and 30's. The story is told as a series of flashbacks during the course of her "around the world" attempt in the summer of 1937, which ended with her disappearance and presumed death smewhere near Howland Island in the Pacific. From what I know of Amelia Earhart's life, this film is very faithful to history.

The cast has many talented actors, including Hilary Swank as Amelia, Richard Gere as George Putnam (her husband) and Ewan McGregor as Amelia's business partner (and lover) Gene Vidal. Through no fault of their own, these actors' performances are good but predictable. Despite the beautiful landscape shots, lush sets and great costumes, they just aren't given much to work with. The exceptions are the scene where Earhart and Putnam embrace before she begins her attempt to circumvent the globe, and the scene where they communicate by radio before she takes-off on the final leg of that fatal trip.

For a history buff like me, this is an interesting film. However, in being so faithful to Amelia's memory, the film lacks spark or compelling drama. I'd say renting or buying the DVD is worth it, depending on your level of interest in the biographical or historical dramas, but this is not a film you'll want to see over and over again for its entertainment value. Therefore, I'll rate it at 3 stars.

Free spirited aviatrix
2009-11-05 - "Amelia" is directed by Mira Nair. In the movie we follow Amelia Earhart's (Hillary Swank) love for flying and where it takes her. She meets the publisher George Putnam (Richard Gere), whom she later marries. The film reveals to us her rise to fame as she becomes the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. We also follow her love for George and a brief affair that she had with Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor). Raising her goals year after year leads her to aspire to a flight around the world. The movie leads up to this fatal attempt.

The movie successfully conveys Amelia's free spirited enthusiasm for flying, and Richard Gere, is particularly good as George Putnam, who was also the marketing agent behind Amelia. We do get a glimpse into the commercial side of Amelia's pursuits, and how she was used by those around her for financial or political gain. All in all this is a somewhat straight forward biopic, but with that being said, the film moves along quickly enough up until the tragic moment of her disappearance over the South Pacific in 1937.

An extra star for Hillary Swank's performance
2009-11-02 - This bio-pic of Amelia Earhart's rise as America's sweetheart-in-a-jumpsuit to her last moments alive would rate two, or at most, three stars if not for Hillary Swank's likable, honest portrait of the title character. Swank captures the Earhart of the clips we've all seen: confident, open-hearted, with a hint of impish delight and tomboy charm. Swank makes Earthart's ascent to celebrity entirely believable as she radiates passion for flying and for using her pioneer flight as a platform to encourage all women to reach for their dreams. Richard Gere, as her eventual husband G.P. Putnam, puts in a somewhat lackluster performance that has glimpses of affection but not much depth. Yes, he is that "speck of dust in (Earhart's/Swank's) constellation." The real mystery to this film is not what happened to Earhart, but why the screenwriters chose to feature the pilot's connection to Gore Vidal, a child at the time, and why Ewan McGregor's turn as Vidal's father Gene is so wooden and . . . well, boring. This side plot of an affair and Earhart's connection to the Vidals is never confronted beyond a few fleeting moments. Multiple shots of a young, infatuated Gore add nothing but so-what filler. It almost seems as though director Mira Nair and the screenwriters thought America needed a whiff of scandal and connection to other celebrities to make it into a hit. Ironically, given what Earhart wanted to stand for, the filmmakers seemed to have believed that her accomplishments alone could not have carried this film. And for a woman who seemed anything but sentimental, the film threatens to become maudlin at every turn.

Despite the flaws, the film is worth seeing for Swank's performance and a handful of scenes critical of the way Earhart was treated, thus lessening the sentimentality: her role as an arm-candy passenger in her first trans-Atlantic flight, her commercial exploitation at the hands of her husband, and the dubious way she won the first women's air race, all designed to brand the Earhart name. It's no wonder that she wanted to make the first around-the-world flight, perhaps to have something real she could point to as an accomplishment.

I recommend this film for those who have already seen the best films out in the theaters. Not bad but not great, either, "Amelia" is the type of film that can help pass a rainy afternoon or evening without begging for another viewing.

-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

Snoozefest
2009-11-01 - In the 1930s, Amelia Earhart was a pioneering woman pilot. She married a man who helped promote her flights. She went missing on the last leg of a round-the-world flight in 1937.

That's all I got from the movie, which is shockingly bad and instantly forgettable. Earhart was a national figure followed by millions, yet you'd never know why from this tepid film. While Hilary Swank seems likeable as Amelia and does bear a striking resemblance to her, the script fails to make her the least bit interesting. The dialogue is tedious, the movie has no excitement or tension, and the director destroys any scenes that might have been emotionally compelling. Richard Gere has the thankless job of playing Amelia's husband and comes across as a completely dull fellow. Even the music is boring. What a colossal waste of talent.

There's more to life than being a passenger...
2009-10-29 - Ever since I was a kid (in the 1960s), I admired Amelia Earhart, and read her biographies. She was a fascinating women and her mysterious disappearance only added to the intrigue. When this film first came out, I did something I haven't done in 40 years. I braved the crowds and attended one of the very first showings of Amelia. I was more than a little disappointed in this movie.

First, the good points. Hillary Swank was spot on in her portrayal of Ms. Earhart. Her speech and body language seemed so apropos and true to the early film reels we have all seen of the real-life Amelia. I do believe Ms. Swank nailed it.

As another reviewer said, the panoramic sweeping views of the sea and skies was dazzling and memorable. This alone made it an easy movie to sit back and enjoy.

And speaking as an aviation buff, I loved the vintage airplanes, and the scenes that accurately depicted the cramped quarters and frustrating conditions these early aviators endured.

The bad points: Richard Gere is a gorgeous man but he didn't click with his leading woman. Not sure why, but it didn't seem believable that they were hubby and wife. And there was a salacious aspect to the film involving Amelia's extra-marital affair and I'm not sure why that was needful and/or important to the story. I wanted to know more about Amelia the aviatrix and her place in history and how and why she earned that place in history. I really wasn't that interested in hearing about her torrid affairs. The sex scandals of her life took up too much time in this film.

Well-behaved women rarely make history, the old saying goes, and Amelia was not a well-behaved woman, but I'd like to hear more about her other exploits and less about her sexual dalliances.

Watch the two-minute trailer for this flick and save yourself the $10 ticket fee. Time for me to go read another one of Amelia's biographies, so I can remember what I admired about this fascinating woman. Despite my high hopes, this movie didn't satisfy my hunger to learn more about Amelia.