DVD review: Amelia

The life story of aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.

Amelia Earhart long held a fascination in many minds. I won’t spoil too much of her life to the uninitiated, suffice to say that apart from being a pioneer of aviation, a true aviatrix, she was an internationally renowned celebrity, highly influential person and that the mysterious circumstances of her death only contributed to her myth.

So, as a movie, how does it work? This is a surprisingly sedate affair. Probably we all imagine long distance flight as something eminently cinematic and awesome. Here is still awesome but in a more philosophical, introspective way. The director, the normally very talented Mira Nair, doesn’t manage to communicate to the viewer the skills and the endurance that were needed for those long distance flights.

It all still looks very pretty, the period features are all there and we can still feel the joy when every flight is completed, it just doesn’t feel like something special.

Alas the various flights occupy only a tiny portion of the movie. Most of it is Amelia life story. Now maybe if you are ah hardcore feminist you’ll find it wonderful but for the rest of us it’s really somewhat dull.

Practically the whole movie is Amelia as the proto feminist who goes and does things that a girl is not supposed to do while making rousing speeches about it. We are completely missing any sense of engagement, any peril and any sense of the story moving forward.

An inordinate amount of space is devoted to Amelia love life. I say inordinate because it’s all left so vague. There were many rumors about it at the time but instead of choosing a particular version and sticking to it they leave it all on the table. Every now and then the character mutter something cryptic, or glance at each other, but nothing is shown. It’s the cinematic equivalent of gossiping. We see but there is nothing there.

Hilary Swank gives a mimetic performance as Amelia. She looks like her, talks like her and moves like her. It’s very impressive. She is good at it that this becomes somewhat a detriment for the movie. Amelia herself is not a rousing character by modern standard and so what is gained in authenticity is lost cinematically.

Conclusion: Pretty flights and impressive performances can’t elevate a boring moving that follow too closely its subject matter. To make a good adaptation you should always betray to original.