Review of Amelia (2009) by Anna C — 14 Mar 2010

First James Cameron thought he could fool audiences by making a tragic love story centered around the ill-fated journey of the Titanic. Now, director Mira Nail, and the movie's writers have done the same with the still unsolved mystery of what happened to Amelia Earhart. It's anyone's guess as to what made 'Titanic' such a massive success considering everyone knew what would happen in the end. No one knows what happened to Amelia Earhart to this day, thus ending in similar fashoin as 'Titanic.'.

Being that this movie is allegedly based on a pair of biographies on Earhart, one would have thought that Nair and company would have given more backstory on Earhart's life. Instead, it focused primarily on a love triangle between herself, George Putnam (Richard Gere), and Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor). The story outlines her rise to fame as a female pilot, but fails to really point out what exactly led to her interest in aviation. There is one very short sequence outlining that at best. She talks about seeing someone else flying, and thus she wanted to become a pilot. There has to be more to her interest than that. Not only that, but how did she learn to fly? The story fails to outline that. Again, rather, it focuses on the love story.

The lack of background is not the only downside to this story. The story itself drags miserably along for its roughly two-hour run time. The only thing that makes up for the slow telling of the story is the scenery. Even the backdrop was done a little over the top, taking away from the believeability factor. Actress Hilary Swank's portrayal of Earhart does little to add to the story's believeability, too. Another actress perhaps would have helped at least somewhat.

In terms of the dvd presentation itself, there is little to help make things any better. The dvd had perhaps one bonus feature that added even the slightest bit of interest at best. Other than that one feature, the rest of the features felt like nothing more than filler.

Perhaps part of the reason that this mediocre film received such high expectations was the success of the equally boring tragic love story that was 'Titanic.' Another reason was perhaps a pair of A-List actors in Hilary Swank and Richard Gere. Any other reason(s) are up in the air. All of this aside, 'Amelia' did anything but live up to its expectations. If anything, it will disappear just as Earhart herself disappeared. The only difference? Earhart herself will never be forgotten. This biopic surrounding her life will.