After becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Amelia Earhart’s 1937 attempt to circumnavigate the globe—ending, of course, with her mysterious disappearance over the Pacific Ocean—made her life the stuff of legend. But Amelia, director Mira Nair’s new biopic of her intriguing life does little to explore the intricacies of her character, instead relying on impressive aerial shots and gorgeous cinematography to keep the audience interested.
It seems that screenwriters Ronald Bass and Anna Phelan didn’t realize that interesting historical characters don’t translate into an interesting script. Even the all-star cast of Hilary Swank (Amelia Earhart), Richard Gere (her husband, George Putnam), and Ewan McGregor (her lover, Gene Vidal) can’t support these weak roles. The love triangle that could provide a new angle on Earhart’s life goes almost unnoticed, save a few forced moments. The musical score tries to make up for the lack of emotional intensity with overly powerful lyrical lines, and the script relies too heavily on marking each headline the pilot ever made.
The film’s biggest weakness is a lack of any real emotional connection with Earhart. For a biopic, the character development moves more like a TV documentary—her character comes across as static and inaccessible. Rather than exploring the rebellious, feminist themes of her life, Nair focuses on voice-over narratives and point-of-view shots of Earhart flying, which make for impressive visuals but do little to connect the viewer to the character. Stuart Dryburgh’s beautiful cinematography can only go so far.
Amelia’s story is timeless, but it feels suffocated by the monotonous script. Despite its weaknesses in character and plot development, the film should bring renewed interest to one of America’s most famous aviators. Just as Earhart captured the hearts and minds of America in the early twentieth century, the film’s beautiful panoramics might inspire a new generation of filmographers to pick up a camera. It just won’t be inspiring any screenwriters.
