Amelia - Movie Review of the Amelia Earhart Movie Starring Hillary Swank

Amelia is the Mira Nair's latest movie and stars Hillary Swank as the famous aviatrix, Amelia Earhart. Amelia follows Earhart from 1928 to her disappearance somewhere over the Pacific Ocean during her attempt to be the first pilot to circumnavigate the globe. The search mounted for the lost Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston) was the greatest search ever undertaken.

Let me start off by telling you that I love Amelia Earhart and have ever since I was a little girl swept away by Amelia's daring, her lanky boyish beauty, and, of course, the mystery of her famous disappearance 72 years ago.

So, I went into the theatre with great expectations. I left with mixed feelings.

From the moment Hillary Swank appeared on the screen on the wing of a plane that perfectly mimicked a well-known photograph, tears bubbled up in my eyes. Hillary Swank was Amelia Earhart. That oh-so memorable face, the hesitant yet luminous smile, the smattering of freckles like angel kisses, her movements, the quick shift from shyness to bravado, from humility to daring-do. She was the perfect androgynous Amelia. Plus she wore those cool jumpsuits.

However.

The movie never seems to really get off the ground. Choppy scenes come off as a montage rather than a dramatic sequence. Amelia comes plopped into fame as if she was born to it. Forget her family (except for a few brief mentions). Forget her early years and how Amelia Earhart, the social worker came to be the most famous flying lady ever to grace the cockpit of an airplane.

Richard Gere plays Amelia's husband and promoter, George Putnam, a mature gentleman who seems unsure whether he speaks in a New England accent or not. The handsome Gere often spoils his looks by smiling, transforming himself to a bunny rabbit. Amelia's lover, Gene Vidal (father of Gore Vidal) is played by a flat, charmless Ewan McGregor.with greasy hair to typify the time. There is a moment with Eleanor Roosevelt that could have been heartwarming if the actress who played Eleanor had attempted to come even close to that familiar voice.

And the choppy scenes continued. It started to get on my nerves. I began to be thankful that I had not paid actual money to watch Amelia. I would have been shocked to realize that Mira Nair had made one of my all time favorite movies, 'Monsoon Wedding.'