Amelia: A Turbulent Flight
By Pete Misiak
WXYZ-TV Entertainment Reporter
There's an old joke associated with the brand of luggage that bears the name "Amelia Earhart": Caution: Put Amelia Earhart Luggage on a plane and your bags may never be seen again! (Amelia Earhart Luggage, by the way, is a real product and is still manufactured today.)
Old luggage jokes aside, Amelia Mary Earhart was a noted American aviation pioneer and author. She was a bona fide All-American hero -- the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other flying records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Lockheed L-10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Earhart was known as "Lady Lindy" as a tribute to her as the female version of flying legend Charles Lindbergh, the first person to fly non-stop across the Atlantic in 1927.
I'd like to say that Amelia the movie soars with excitement and tense drama, but that is not the case at all. After all the notoriety associated with her solo Atlantic flight, Amelia (Hillary Swank) is thrust into a new role as America's sweetheart - the legendary "goddess of light," known for her bold, larger-than-life charisma. Yet, even with her global fame solidified, her belief in flirting with danger and standing up as her own, outspoken woman never changed. She was an inspiration to people everywhere, from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Cherry Jones) to the men closest to her heart: her husband, promoter and publishing magnate George P. Putnam (Richard Gere), and her long-time friend and lover, pilot Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor).
Offering just the briefest of flashback context from her early years growing up in rural Kansas, Amelia centers on Earhart’s passion for flight and the two men in her life.
Director Mira Nair tries to capture the essence of Earhart, one of America's pre-World War II pop culture icons, but can't seem to avoid the dreaded “standard biopic treatment.” Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan’s screenplay takes an extraordinary life of adventure and celebrity and drains it of excitement. There are no nuances to Earhart’s character, no hint that she might have been complicit in the marketing schemes dreamed up by husband George.
Swank’s resemblance to Earhart is remarkable, but her performance is only OK; that Kansas accent is distractingly hit-and-miss. She does rise to the occasion in the last 10 minutes, showing us Amelia's heart. Gere and McGregor aren't given much from the screenwriters to work with, but try their best to stay engaged.
The best part of the movie is its technical achievements. Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh earns his paycheck, albeit abetted by visual effects tweaks. The landscape and aerial photography is breathtaking and goes a long way toward suggesting the source of Earhart's largely unexplored passions. The movie’s costumes and production design are attractive and engaging.
For someone like Amelia Earhart, whose life was so fascinating, it's surprising that Amelia was so boring.
Amelia
Rated: PG
Running Time: 111 minutes
Pete Misiak is an award-winning news anchor and reporter at WJR-AM 760 and is also a member of WXYZ.com's Web Team. A former Big Band singer with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, Pete earned membership into Actors' Equity Association in 1982 and has appeared in over 60 productions as an actor and performer.
