Amelia: DVD, Blu-ray Movie Review

DVD,Blu-ray Movie Review

"Amelia"

Directed by Mira Nair, written by Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan, rated PG, 108 minutes.

By our guest blogger, Jeremy Wilkinson.

Amelia Earhart is a legend whose story continues to fascinate. Producing a biopic for someone as compelling as she is difficult, but director Mira Nair more or less is able to make the film work.

The film picks up around the time Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) is approached by publisher George Putnam (Richard Gere), who wants her to be the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a plane. Aside from a few flashbacks, the film sticks to chronicling her career as a pilot, her marriage to Putnam, and her eventual disappearance.

Many shots have beautiful scenery and while most of the film is in color, it is interspersed with black-and-white footage meant to look like 1930s news. The camerawork, while not groundbreaking, does what it needs to do to present the story.

Unfortunately, the writing is sadly uneven. “Why does a man ride a horse?” is a response Amelia gives when asked why she wants to fly. That line, and lines like it, almost scream “manufactured!” and they detract from the believability of the characters. The script also interferes with the chemistry of Swank and Gere. When he finally proposes to her, it’s in such a way that you wonder exactly why she said yes. There also is a race in the movie…but the actual race is inexplicably left out and one only sees the beginning and the end of it.

Despite this, both Swank and Gere deliver fine performances. Swank is believeable as Earhart and while Gere isn’t quite on his A-game, he still does well as Putnam. Ewan McGregor also stars in the movie as Gene Vidal, a fellow pilot Amelia has an affair with. While that arc is important to the story, McGregor just seems “there” for the film, not really bringing much to the character.

One of the positive aspects of the film is that it steers away from any crackpot conspiracy theories about what happened to Earhart. There are no references to Earhart being a spy during World War II, an identity change, or anything like that.

Amelia is a film that could have been great, but instead is an average film about an above-average person. It’s not terrible, per se…it’s just not that good.

Grade: C

View the trailer for "Amelia" here: