Review of Amelia (2009) by Daniel K — 09 Feb 2010

1: A very poor excuse for a biopic. I'd much rather read the Amelia Earhart New Yorker article from a couple months back. It was incredibly more informative and interesting. This is simply flat, lifeless, and far too thin to be of either entertainment value or interest.

The only scenes I found to be at all emotionally stirring were her approach to the beach in Wales before the group of young girls after her first trans-Atlantic flight and the moments leading up to her crash.

The characters were very thinly drawn, the periodicity of the film lacked conviction, and the filmmaking was lackluster. I felt almost none of the joy of what the first flights of this nature must have been like.

Part of this could be explained away for having had similar real-life flying experiences that were much more stirring, but the rest can certainly be attributed to a lack of execution on the part of the filmmakers.

Comparing the flying sequences here with those in films like The Right Stuff or The Aviator is just laughable. The most entertainment I derived from the film was afterwards learning that my sister was actually on the edge of her seat wondering what was going to happen next.

It seemed a bit hard for me to believe that she didn't know of the "unexplained" disappearance of Earhart. She must not have paid attention that year in history class, but I suppose she's not alone though.

The one thing the film did have going for it was Swank's performance and her makeup. She did look and act rather like Earhart.