AMELIA Grade: B -
“Amelia” is certainly shiny and well-acted enough to be a major motion picture about one of the most well-known Americans of the 20th century. But as vivid and well-done as the film is, it tells a story more than it creates a life, a legend or an adventure. While certainly historical, “Amelia” just doesn’t have any of the qualities you might call historic.
Showcasing all the major events of her life, Hilary Swank energetically takes on the role of Amelia Earhart, perhaps the most famous aviator in American history. Referred to in the press as “Lady Lindy” (in reference to Charles Lindbergh), the movie does well in proving Earhart as an aviator in her own right — one who shattered records and presuppositions about which gender belongs in the cockpit.
Swank and cast (including Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor), do an admirable job, but as likeable as the film is, it does only a good — not great — job of conveying the timeless, titanic life of such a universally-renowned figure.
Perhaps the film’s (and Swank’s) best accomplishment is in the portrayal of Earhart as a woman sometimes unsure of her ability and often doubtful of her own femininity, but still strong enough that the audience readily accepts her determination to keep flying despite financial woes, physical dangers and the limits placed on female pilots in a male-dominated world. Fortunately, the film never bogs itself down in any one theme. While obviously feminist, it does not flaunt it, preferring to tell the story of Earhart’s life rather than using it as a vehicle for promoting a cause.
Though Swank has a strong performance, neither she nor the editing of the film are anything one might call Oscar-worthy. There is nothing wrong with Gere, McGregor or anyone else’s performance, for that matter. But though audiences are likely to see good actors doing an amicable job, we always remember that this is a production, not a whole new universe sprouting before our eyes or a trip through space-time to the 1930s. Instead, it is a well-told story of 1930s America and the effect it had on Earhart and her flying — a woman in a man’s world who had to mercilessly promote herself and her products in order to make enough money to finance her next trip aloft.
The problem with telling a story instead of creating an all-encompassing world is that in the latter, we truly feel the motivation behind the characters. The best explanation we get in the entire film about why Earhart wants to fly is for the same reason a man rides a horse — “because he wants to.” Otherwise, there are simple tidbits about freedom and love of the skies, but rarely do they become much more than words.
There are times where the film breaks the cardinal rule of showing rather than telling, sinking into exposition with little to no context as a way of fleshing out details.
“Amelia” is a good biography, not shy of showing its subject for all her faults and scandals, doing well to convey her life and the times in which she conquered the skies. Perhaps the biggest drawback of the film is that the bar is set too high for a two-time Oscar-winner portraying such a great American, but regardless, audiences are unlikely to become entranced by Swank’s Earhart or her story — it is simply an interesting tale. Unlike the woman at the core of it, there is no inspiration for the ages or grand sense of importance and history to “Amelia.”
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
