Amelia (2009): Never Quite Makes It Up Into The Air
Written: Nov 02 '09 (Updated Nov 02 '09)
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Product Rating:
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| Bang For The Buck |
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Pros: Beautiful planes and smiling faces.
Cons: Like a sedative.
The Bottom Line: I don't think it quite got the real story, but it was at least an effort.
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| Ed.Williamson's Full Review: Amelia |
Oh, man, loving the story of Amelia Earhart, I wanted to love this movie. The film is historic, beautiful, and full of potential. Unfortunately, I also found the film to be tedious, flat, and incomplete. It pretty well never got off the runway, so-to-speak, for me. And I wanted it to so badly.
The story of Amelia Earhart is fascinating in itself, and doubly so for any genuine aviation aficionado. Back in the 1930s, Amelia was a pioneer aviator who broke all kinds of barriers in her love for flight. She disappeared over the waters of the South Pacific on her bid to circumnavigate the globe.
The film is full of acting talent. Double-Oscar winner Hilary Swank plays Amelia. Richard Gere plays her husband George Putnam. Ewan McGregor plays her friend Gene Vidal. These, along with a brace of other competent actors, formed the acting pool. But I found the acting to be somewhat forced all the way through and the chemistry between the actors to be sadly lacking a true spark. Hilary seemed to have a glued-on smile through the movie which is so unlike this truly talented lady, and Gere didn't seem all that into his part, nor did, to me anyway, McGregor.
I think the flaws that watered everything down for me were probably traceable to two things: the somewhat flat script and a feeling that the direction was eerily uncertain. At the beginning of the movie, we are given a foreshadowing scene of Amelia's coming disaster at the end of the story, and while in some historic films that helps, I felt it was unnecessary in this one. A couple of important things lacking in the film were, first, we could have benefited from knowing more about Amelia's childhood and what her home life was like, etc.; and second, and most importantly, why she really loved flying. This woman was passionate about flying but I did not feel that kind of passion, more like lip service. Her childhood is dealt with very briefly and her love of flying is dealt with almost flippantly, or so it seemed to me. I think the heart of the story was supposed to be Amelia's adult relationships, but here again there seemed to be a lack of feeling, as if people were in the dark about how the scenes should be played. Then there are some weak threads in the story, as the one about a pretty young female pilot who competes with Amelia, which felt incomplete, as if an impatient film editor had cut that story out because the film was overly long (even in the stage we have it, it runs 111 minutes).
On the upside, it is a beautiful film, with lots of colorful scenery. It is practically devoid of violence, profane/obscene language,and gratuitous overt sex scenes. Much of it is historically accurate.
But, alas, I nearly fell asleep in it, and it wasn't because I stayed up late the night before. It was so long, so flat, so tensionless, and so tedious, that I found myself struggling to keep my neurons focused on what was happening on-screen. Even the caffeine in my soft drink didn't seem to help. Nor did all those beautiful old airplanes. This one, for me, needed to go back to the wind tunnel. The engines just lacked horsepower.
Then again, perhaps I was just hopeful that the real sense of adventure, suspense, and excitement which were a part of the real Amelia Earhart story would come through. For me, somewhere, somehow, those things were lost at sea.
Three Stars/ ***
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Serious Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: A few glitches, but mostly complete.
Worst Part of this Film: Script
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Epinions.com ID:
Ed.Williamson
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Member: Ed Williamson
Location: Way Out West, USA
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