It’s odd that many of the early aviators have become as famous for their failures as their successes. As many people will be able to tell you that Charles Lindbergh’s baby was kidnapped and murdered, and that he had a disturbing admiration for the Nazis, than that he was the first person to fly non-stop from New York to Paris in the Spirit Of St. Louis. Likewise with Amelia Earhart, her fame now largely rests on having disappeared without trace somewhere over the Pacific, while attempting to become the first woman to circumnavigate the world in a plane, rather than her many records and achievements.
The biopic, Amelia, attempts to redress the balance by looking at the woman before her ill-fated attempt to go round the world. She was indeed a fascinating woman, who went from Kansas tomboy to Boston social worker, before taking to the sky and becoming the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane (as a passenger) and then the first to do it solo as a pilot. She set women’s altitude and speed records, was the first woman to fly non-stop across America, won numerous awards and tirelessly promoted female aviation. She really is, and deserves to be, a feminist icon, who truly believed in her right to do whatever men did, and despite living in an age before sexual equality, went out and did it.
The problem with the film is that it sucks the life out of the story so that it becomes a very beautiful but dramatically inert drudge. The film ticks off the important parts of Amelia’s story, particularly the period between her 1932 transatlantic flight and her 1937 disappearance, but never seems to find a way to pull the viewer in. It’s certainly a great looking movie, with immaculate period detail and soaring flight sequences, but as a drama it’s just boring.
The issue seems to be that in their bid to be as faithful as possible and not deviate from the documented details of Amelia’s actual story, the screenwriters have made the mistake of avoiding anything that would give the film dramatic impetus. Even things that sound like they should be interesting, don't work here. For example, on their wedding day, Amelia writes a proto-feminist letter to her husband, George Putnam (Richard Gere), saying “I shall not hold you to any medieval code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly.” She engages in an affair with Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor). Putnam milks her celebrity with a series of endorsements, which ends up causing problems because some people feel she’s a better celebrity than a pilot, and that her fame has exceeded her achievements.
However while all this is true and has plenty of potential for good old fashion romance and drama, it feels as if the script doesn’t really want to do or say much that isn’t in the historical record (in fact a lots of the anachronistic dialogue can be directly attributed to Earhart or her writings), which leaves the whole thing feeling slightly drained of the power and soaring spirit it could have had. There are lots of interesting details, but nothing to make the whole thing come to life. It's a valiant attempt to stick to the facts, but here it doesn't work.
The performances don’t help either. While Ewan McGregor is good but underused, Richard Gere simply smarms his way through the film, giving you no clue as to why someone as freespirited as Earhart would have married him, or what he saw in her. In real-life they did seem like a rather mismatched pair, but the film gives no clue as to what made their relationship, which did seem to work, tick.
Hilary Swank meanwhile certainly looks the part. There are photos of Earhart where with a quick glance you might think it was Swank. However while the performance is very studied, earnest and determined, it’s also rather wooden.
It’s all a real shame, as it all looks magnificent, and Amelia’s life has all the elements of a great story, but thanks to some weak performances and an inert screenplay, it’s rather dull. By the end it’s difficult not to wish they’d given up on the historical record and gone with some of the conspiracy theories about her disappearance – which range from capture by the Japanese to alien abduction – just to add a bit of drama and life.
Overall Verdict: Amelia certainly looks the part, but despite its best efforts it never gets off the ground.
Reviewer: Sam Bruneau
