Review of Amelia (2009) by Jeff B — 08 Aug 2010

No-Frills flying. Such a term best describes Amelia, a film that is neither an economy class popcorn flick nor first class critical darling. No, this high-flying bio-pic is more business class, calculatingly and slickly designed to bait Oscar?if filmgoers were still living in the 1990s. Every scene looks picture postcard pristine. Every player hits their marks and remembers their lines. Nearly every scene is ripped from a historical footnote. But the days of bloated dramas that win Oscars because they tick off all of the right boxes went down with the Titanic. Now, such award baiting pictures need more than just heart?they need a soul full of depth, emotion, and authenticity. Despite good intentions, Amelia seems better suited as a pay cable Movie-of-the-Week.

From director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake) comes this PG-rated bio-pic of larger-than-life aviatrix Amelia Earhart (Swank), whose flights and loves (Gere, Ewan McGregor) made her a global phenomenon.

Swank and Gere embody their roles splendidly, but never generate the sparks necessary for an on-screen romance that spans the breadth of the movie. In the hands of director Nair, they are never at a loss for beautiful trappings. Perhaps, Amelia?s greatest strengths lie in the few Oscar boxes that it doesn?t check off. Coming in under two hours, this breezy bio-pic feels anything but epic. Also, all involved managed to render Earhart?s life with a family-friendly PG rating and NOT make it feel cloyingly unreal. Still, perhaps because of this, it comes off more as a filmstrip than hard-hitting biography.

Bottom Line: Plane average.