Amelia (2009)

Director:

Mira Nair

Writers (WGA):

Ronald Bass (written by) and
Anna Hamilton Phelan (written by) ...

Release Date:

23 October 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

Defying The Impossible. Living The Dream.

Plot:

A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the world.

Plot Keywords:

Around The World | Amelia Earhart | 1937 | Pacific Ocean | Pilot

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Hilary Swank	...	Amelia Earhart
Richard Gere	...	George Putnam
Ewan McGregor	...	Gene Vidal
Christopher Eccleston	...	Fred Noonan
Joe Anderson	...	Bill
Cherry Jones	...	Eleanor Roosevelt
Mia Wasikowska	...	Elinor Smith
Aaron Abrams	...	Slim Gordon
Dylan Roberts	...	Leo Bellarts
Scott Yaphe	...	William Dalten
Tom Fairfoot	...	Balfour
Ryann Shane	...	Young Amelia
William Cuddy	...	Gore Vidal
Elizabeth Shepherd	...	Frances Putnam
Richard Donat	...	Gallagher

MPAA:

Rated PG for some sensuality, language, thematic elements and smoking.

Runtime:

USA:111 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG (certificate #45262) | Singapore:PG | Ireland:PG | Hong Kong:I | Australia:M | UK:PG | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB)

Filming Locations:

Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada

Company:

AE Electra Productions

Trivia:

The movie shows Earhart finishing third in the first Santa Monica-to-Cleveland Women's Air Derby in 1929, but does not explain why. At the last stop before the final leg of the race to Cleveland, Earhart and her friend Ruth Nichols were tied for first. Nichols took off right before Earhart, but her aircraft clipped a tractor on the runway and flipped over. Instead of taking off, Earhart ran to Ruth's plane to drag her to safety. After Earhart was sure that Nichols was not seriously hurt, she took off for Cleveland but finished third largely due to her delayed takeoff.

Goofs:

Continuity: When pilot Wilmer "Bill" Stultz is standing near the dock where the "Friendship" plane is getting ready to take off, he has a coffee cup in his hand, talking to Amelia who is in the left-side pilot's seat. When he decides to get on the plane, he walks down the dock, puts his cup on one of the three barrels on the dock. When the plane starts to get ready for takeoff and slowly turns into the harbor a few seconds later after he boards the plane, the cup is no longer on the barrel.

Quotes:

George Putnam: Come back to me.
Amelia Earhart: Always.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Jay Leno Show: (#1.32)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Clarinet Bandleader

an embarrassment to the motion picture industry - the weakest film of the 21st century

I usually never review films on IMDb. I will try my best to be direct but not harsh. "Amelia" is quite possibly the most expensive mistake made in the film world today, and made it was, for the worst reasons. It's one thing to tackle an interpretation of a historical figure, and another to depict it. David Lean once said that a director must be very careful not to turn sequences into featherweight lantern slides which just tell the plot. The writer and director of this film have committed this tragic mistake: they tell the story, they don't interpret it.

Of course the story of Amelia is interesting and compelling, but that doesn't mean that it is dramatic. Drama means intensity, which only springs from conflict. For the first hour of the movie, everything goes "well". Her professional life goes well, her love life goes well. No conflict. Good films are about evolving relationships. Think about all your favorite movies. Why are they your favorites? Because they depict two people who shift from A to B. This film had no such storyline. It was just an expensive re-enactment of her life.

If you think this film is about her flying vs her personal life, you're wrong. "The Aviator" was about that, "Freida" was about that, "Amadeus" was about that. Movies made by good directors are about contrasts. There seems to be no challenge in her life, her flying and her marriage with Richard Gere goes along perfectly. So, in the love story aspect, the movie fails. After the first couple of reels, there is no interest whatsoever in the love story. Richard Gere's character is flattened out completely, and he is just an accessory to the movie. Why does he stand for such a template for production value I do not know. The studio executives, or, whoever was naive enough to pour millions into the amateur director's over-dramatically dry attempt to make a movie, must have been swept away by the quality of the content and completely disregarded that the director just wanted to celebrate the image.

If you think it's a film about freedom and challenge and womanhood, again, you are mistaken. There seems to be no challenge, no obstacle in the way of Amelia's rise to fame, thus making a character who is not compelling and a story that is not interesting. When they tell her "you are reckless, you can't fly", you're supposed to think "no! she can do it!". But no, you don't think that. You think "you are reckless, you can't fly". Everything is too "easy" in this film. They thought that if they just told her life as it was, the audience would be intrigued. Well, we weren't. Just because something "is" doesn't means that that something is "drama". Just because the story itself is interesting, doesn't mean that it can be dramatic.

And please, don't even talk about that last monologue. "Everyone's got oceans to fly, as long as you have the heart to do it". Really? Really Mica Nair, or whatever your name is? You failed to teach me anything about the personal life of Amelia, you failed at balancing the movie in terms of what is SHOULD be about - her personality, her relationships, her inner dialogue, and you self-indulged in the pretty dissolves of the clouds with the over dramatic epic score.

This is "safe" art. Do you see what I mean? Safe art is for restaurants, for museums. We are entering an era of daring art. This is the Italian neo-realism all over again. Young people are hitting the streets with DV cameras telling stories of ordinary people. Stories of sex, violence, psychopathological intrigue. And what did you have to offer us? A flat depiction of a series of unconnected unmotivated events, filmed with the sole purpose of "celebrating accomplishment", the whole "if she can do it, YOU can do it" motif. Not only did you fail to pass that along, but you have made us fear for the future of mainstream Hollywood cinema.

I only wish that the same screenplay, as plot-holed and imbalanced as it was, had been made by a real director. Someone who knows how to interpret a scene, and not just tell it. Someone who has the talent of embedding a scene with a subtextual content that ties the visuals and the characters together, a Scorsese, a Foreman, an Iñárritu, a Gilliam, someone who still knows how to handle traditional stories with 21st century audiences.

I apologize if I was too harsh, and if my critique was affected by my own stance. I am a victim of this current economic crisis as we all are. And to see that studios are still wasting millions in weak movies makes me worry about the future of cinema in our economy, in our culture, and in our time.