Directed by:
Mira NairCinematography:
Stuart DryburghComposer:
Gabriel YaredCast:
Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Joe Anderson, Cherry Jones, Mia Wasikowska, Aaron Abrams, Ryann Shane, Scott Anderson (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Biopic detailing the life and extraordinary career of American pilot Amelia Earhart. Hilary Swank stars as the free-spirited Earhart, whose early aviation triumphs and meteoric rise to fame were accompanied by her tempestuous partnership and eventual marriage to publisher George Putnam (Richard Gere) - a bond that remained unbroken even after Earhart's passionate affair with Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor). Earhart was not only the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, but was also the first pilot - male or female - to fly unaccompanied across the Pacific. Her life was tragically cut short in 1937 when she mysteriously disappeared while flying over the South Pacific during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe. (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (3)
A biopic with stunning aerial shots, without exception excellent actors, haunting music that recalls John Barry's classics... And, unfortunately, with an ordinary story with a minimum of surprises. That's what we get with Amelia. It’s not bad at all, but also not astounding in any way. As far as the direction is concerned, I have reservations about the constant repetition of the same processes (the two Atlantic crossings look - except for the storm - practically the same, the film is constantly interspersed with news captions in order to make it as vivid as possible, and the director seems to have taken a great liking to the "archival black-and-white footage suddenly becomes a color film"), yet the great insert of shooting and photographing commercials is to be commended. There should have been more such livening in Amelia.
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Amelia Earhart isn’t Amélie of Montmartre, so don’t expect a very likable and crazy cartoonish character, but rather an overly stylish harlot who is lucky because she can fly damn well. But when the creators don’t shoot even the aerial shots nicely and everything else is very average or bad you can’t expect a good biopic. It fascinates me that they managed to get actors like Richard Gere or Ewan McGregor into such a bad movie and that the distributor had the balls to claim that Hilary Swank gave an unforgettable performance. She didn’t.
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This is seemingly the ideal substance, cast and all. Yet the result is a film for which Richard Gere was wasted. Hilary Swank is drowned in a mask that is so authentic it doesn't give her a chance to act at all. Ewan McGregor's character is unnecessary, and the worst realization of all is that all the cut scenes are important and would have made for a much better and more compact experience if they had remained in the film. Thus it is a film without emotions, without any psychology of the characters, and instead is just a biographical illustration.
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