SYNOPSIS
The life and times of renowned aviator Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank), lost somewhere above the Pacific Ocean trying to circumnavigate the globe.
CRITIQUE
I didn’t care much for Mira Nair’s Amelia when I first saw it back in October of 2009. For me, I found that the director of The Namesake and Monsoon Wedding just couldn’t put the pieces of the 1930’s aviator in any sort of interesting order, the filmmaker just glossing the surface of this extraordinary woman’s life delivering up a forgettable biopic that was as wispy as the clouds the pilot would so often fly through.
Watching it again on Blu-ray my opinion hasn’t so much changed as it has gotten a little bit worse. Back in October I wrote that Nair’s, “beautifully filmed but emotionally aloof Amelia only hints at the complex character traits allowing for Earhart to take to the sky. Based on a pair of biographies by Susan Butler (“East of the Dawn”) and Mary S. Lovell (“The Sound of Wings”) and working from a screenplay by Ron Bass (Rain Man) and Anna Hamilton Phelan (Girl, Interrupted), the movie is a shockingly empty vehicle that frustratingly never achieves liftoff. Its insights are mostly superficial in nature, and where I was hoping for complexity and nuance all I received were melodramatic platitudes that did nothing to enlighten me to the driving force behind this woman’s desires.”
I now find myself feeling that this assessment was a wee bit kind. This film’s insights aren’t just superficial, they’re practically nonexistent. The movie is so glossy, so intent on being the type of old school biography Hollywood that would make William Wyler get up from his grave and applaud, it forgets to bring Earhart herself to life in any meaningful way. Her journey is perfunctory at best, and while many of us today think of her as a heroine you want find any reason why this is so after watching this.
Just thinking about all of this again is making me a tiny bit depressed so I’m going to just let my previous theatrical review do the rest of the heavy lifting for me:
“As words of hope and inspiration were drawn from tragedy and heartbreak I didn’t so much shed a tear as I instead shrugged my shoulders. While the romantic inside of me wanted Earhart to succeed the person I am didn’t know much more about the woman walking out of the theater as I did when I entered it.
I felt cheated and used, the pieces for a classic old school Hollywood biography all in place but with no one seemingly interested enough to take the time to put them all together. It felt like the filmmakers were just going through the motions, everyone so positive they had a sure thing that they didn’t quite feel the need to work to their usual standards in order to make it a success. Sadly, much like Earhart’s final adventure crossing the globe, Amelia is a tragedy, crashing to earth in a fiery ball even before it had the opportunity to get off the ground.”
THE VIDEO
Amelia is presented in 2.35:1/1080p widescreen. I have to give Fox credit here, as this transfer is pretty much immaculate, Stuart Dryburgh’s (The Painted Veil) luscious aerial cinematography arguably looking better here on Blu-ray than it did in the movie theatre.
THE AUDIO
Available audio includes English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with optional English SDH, English, French and Spanish subtitles.
THE EXTRAS
