Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

When it comes to biography films, the absolute worst thing you can be is pointless. But in so many ways, this look at the famous years of Amelia Earhart's life and career is exactly that. When a historical figure's accomplishments are so well documented and their demise so infamous, you don't need to spend as much time detailing the events that are in every history book. In fact, it's an excellent opportunity to get inside the head and heart of the subject. What's particularly frustrating about AMELIA is that I know so little about Earhart as a child and her upbringing--all of the things that brought her to such notoriety--yet the film decides to introduce us to her after she's already fairly famous and well on her way to becoming the most famous woman in America.

Two-time Oscar-winner Hilary Swank is actually the perfect choice to play Earhart. She has a ready smile, more personality than the screen can contain, and substantial acting chops to get the job done. Richard Gere plays her faithful manager/husband George Putnam, and he's selected a voice that is perhaps a little too similar to the one he used in Chicago. Apparently he thinks everyone in the 1930s spoke like a Movietone News announcer. But the portrayal of their love affair that turned into a marriage left me cold. What's worse is that her affair with fellow pilot Gene Vidal (father of Gore, who is shown here as a young boy) also comes across as a little blah, which is doubly surprising since he's played by Ewan McGregor, who has had some success playing romantic leads. The biggest problem with McGregor is that he's barely in the movie enough to make you enjoy his company. It feels like miles of scenes with him in them were cut, whether they actually were or not.

Director Mira Nair (MONSOON WEDDING, MISSISSIPPI MASALA, THE NAMESAKE) is a wonderful magician when it comes to creating movies, and Amelia is loaded with gorgeous sets, costume, scenery, and cinematography. So the problem with the film does not lie in her abilities. No, the reason AMELIA lies so flat and comes across as so dreadfully dull is the screenplay from Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan, which feels like a collection of headlines, speeches and quotable quotes strung together in the sloppiest possible way. Even the most intimate scenes feel like the dialogue was ripped out of a drug store romance novel, and it cheapens the life story of an extraordinary woman.

The film is not without its moments. A quick scene in which Earhart meets Eleanor Roosevelt is brought to life mainly through the casting of Cherry Jones as the First Lady. Probably the best sequence, however, is the final 20 minutes or so, which depict Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston) final moments in the sky. I'm assuming that what we see is based on fact, since their final broadcasts were heard by the Coast Guard stationed at what would have been their final refueling point before completing their journey in California. It's remarkably tense and well acted, and I wish the rest of the film had felt that intimate. Alas, most of what we get with AMELIA is surface-level television biography fare that didn't tell me a thing about Earhart or about what inspires someone to achieve the seemingly impossible. If Swank gets some sort of knee-jerk Oscar nomination for this role, I'll be surprised and hugely disappointed--coincidentally the exact two feelings I had about this movie.

-- Capone
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