AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Executscan Expected more

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Kirpianuscus the basic virtue - its freshness. it is a film made with passion and special for the right option for the lead roles. it is a homage. and a realistic portrait of a legendary woman. it is the simple and honest story behind the titles of newspapers. and this did it a great film. Hillary Swank shines as Amelia. and she gives not exactly a beautiful performance but the inspired way for discover her character out of the status of impressive statue. the ambition, the sacrifices, the need to be herself. this is all. and more. because "Amelia" is little more than a biopic. it is the perfect answer to the expectations about yourself who grows up from the early years for each from us.

justbusinessthebook I was a little surprised at all of the negative commentary here. I found the movie's acting appropriate. It told a story without being judgmental. Really, who needs to know the reasons behind why Ms. Earheart had two guys on the edge all of the time. The reasons seemed quite clear to me. She was a free spirit and on the move all of the time. She did what men did in an era when women weren't supposed to do what men did, flying or otherwise.She challenged the limitations for women in the 1930's. Who needs excuses for that. And, she took a risk that would have won her big if she and her navigator had found that impossible island, and other factors had not played against her landing on it, instead of her disappearing into the ocean.Yes, I was surprised to learn that she had a navigator on board because I had always thought she 'died alone'.The story is told well. The filming, in my humble opinion, was cinematic and appropriately framed. I was disappointed to see that the film did not, apparently, win any awards.It is also a love story of great interest in the end.I applaud this movie BECAUSE it did endeavour to be FACTUAL instead of being on the edge of someone's perverted sense of fantasy or sexual voyeurism. I will be buying the DVD for 'my collection' on the merit of the story and documentation that comes along with movie...An interesting story presented in a manner that maintained my interest throughout... the stars in this movie all performed the characters well, mimicking what is seen in the real life clips that accompany the DVD. To me, that bears more merit than seeking to entice the audience through titillating explanation of Amelia's sexuality. There is enough of that stuff available in other movies. For once, a movie that concentrated on THE STORY and not the story the sexually starved of our nation would have liked to have seen???

Nicholas Barrett If you are here to check out reviews of "Amelia" in the hope of a gripping cinematic adventure, please be warned to lower your expectations. My own proved far too high, founded on my longstanding admiration for the charismatic 1930s heroine of the skies and on a love of flying in old turboprop planes and noisy small aircraft whenever the chance arises, sidelining guilt about my bit part in aviation's major contribution to ozone depletion. Of course Amelia Earhart was free of today's environmental worries, with great distances topping her list of challenges.When I heard that the dependable and gifted Hilary Swank had been cast in the star role, my hopes soared with a feeling that she would be perfect for the part like the smart, spunky and enthusiastic all-American girl she seems to be. And excellent she is. I had doubts about Richard Gere in the role of the publisher who becomes Earhart's fund-raising promoter and more. My prejudice was unfairly based on a period when I sat through someone's young appetite for some of the sloppiest high romance movies ever endured. Back then, Gere then seemed omnipresent and utterly beyond credibility and I started avoiding his films!But years pass. In fact, Gere does very well in the role of the patient and increasingly affectionate George P. Putnam, while Ewan McGregor is good as the commercial flight pioneer Gene Vidal. He also becomes part of a love triangle, testified to by his son Gore. Equally worthy of mention are Cherry Jones in a cameo part as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Christopher Eccleston as Amelia's navigator Fred Noonan on her final ill-fated bid to be the first woman to fly round the world.Amelia lifts us off the ground in the lengthy flight sequences in Mira Nair's film, the parts I usually enjoyed the most. We are granted the spectacular views that any airborne movie should dish up, with some splendid photography and a taste of the thrill of the rides across different oceans between continents. And when Earhart succeeds in her accomplishments, we see the ticker-tape parades and meet younger female fliers whom she does her best to encourage in a man's world.So what's so disappointing about "Amelia"? It's hard to pin down precisely, but to start with both script and direction are serviceable but pedestrian, failing fully to flesh out some key characters and at least sustain constant interest. The very worst of the film, after spells of boredom despite valiant efforts by the actors, concerns the last known hours of Earhart's short life, which make for a missed opportunity.The aviator is world famous for attempting the almost impossible, risking all on a bid to complete her planetary tour by landing on tiny Howland Island in the Pacific to refuel and fly on to coastal America. If any true-life exploit shown on screen should generate a sense of action and high adventure, that was the biggest in Earhart's career, but Nair's movie falls regrettably short of the reality.True, the film-makers portray in some detail one of the controversial accounts of the fatal communications breakdown between Amelia's Lockheed Elektra and the USS Itasca moored off Howland, which led to the disappearance of the aircraft. Yet hardly any real tension builds up in these climactic scenes aboard plane and ship. The cast seems all but abandoned to make their best of a bad job, not for the first time, which I blame on script flaws and unadventurous direction.Maybe Nair tried to plod her way too close to all the details she and the producers knew to be accurate, without venturing into a little creative licence to raise the dramatic stakes. But when I rate her film 6/10, that's an acknowledgement of the background research and of factors such as the acting and some striking sets. These mean I am ready to see it more than once while wishing it could have been much more exciting, like Earhart's life often was.I get a far bigger emotional punch from listening to Heather Nova singing "I Miss My Sky (Amelia Earhart's Last Days)" on her "Redbird" album than I did from that last act of the film. Nobody knows what really happened to Amelia and Fred, but legends persist that they did manage to land somewhere unknown. Nova's allegorical lyrics imply by conjecture that the aircraft was out of fuel or a write-off.After all, in the film Earhart and Noonan do indeed land in places as yet unknown! Location titles solemnly inform viewers that they are in Pakistan, which did not exist until 1947, a decade after their global circumnavigation attempt, and also set them down in Mali, which was then no nation but a part of sprawling French West Africa. But these are quibbles.For all my reservations, I recommend "Amelia" not only to die-hard Earhart fans who will certainly be able to recognize her in Swank's well-prepared performance, but also to a broader audience that might be interested in a movie about a succession of some of the most daring aviation exploits of all time. Like I said, the film does manage to fly - but mainly when it's already airborne.

Tim Kidner One can't but help that feel that this a movie about romance; the love affair between Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) and the freedom of flight and flying plus the romantic interludes with her husband, George Putnam (a bespectacled Richard Gere).There is also the motive of a woman, fighting so hard in a man's world, none more so than in aviation - and succeeding. Romantic comedy director, Mira Nair, most famous for Monsoon Wedding is the unlikely choice to take the reigns here.Unfortunately, for my eyes and ears, it's just too soft, both in its narrative focus and its substance. Predictable and to a certain extent, even though we might not know her actual story, we can guess it, until at which point comes the 'biggy', it's an anti-climax and too late to save the movie.The role of Earhart might not have had the juicy possibilities of Oscar standard acting as Swank's two Academy wins and thus, the persona she projects just doesn't seem to tie in with what we would expect a maverick and pioneer to be - and need to be like to simply get on with their venture.Richard Gere is O.K., in a role that again just seems too obliging and mushy. Brits in major roles, Christopher Eccleston as Fred Noonan, who, if I recall plays an American pilot who liked a guzzle of booze too often and was Earhart's co-pilot on the her last flight and higher billed, Ewan McGregor. He plays Gene Vidal, father of Gore and with whom Earhart has an extra-marital 'jaunt' with. McGregor is unusually forgettable in the role and I already can't quite remember all that the pair did.Hollywood did films like these (admittedly with men, all round) which were a dime a dozen, in the 50's & 60's - and they had bite and a sense of heroic purpose. More gun-ho, admittedly but better entertainment.Amelia isn't a total waste of time, even though at times you may wonder if it is during its near two hours. And you will learn something, if you can keep paying attention...