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Amelia (2009)

Director: Mira Nair

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2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Mira Nair’s biopic of legendary aviatrix Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank, below) arrives on these shores the victim of a rather comprehensive kicking from the American critics, and it’s easy to see why. The film is hokey, wide-eyed and at times laughably unconvincing – and as such is an entirely fitting heir to the ’30s Hollywood movies it’s clearly attempting to imitate. Not for Nair the fashionable, cynical revisionism of recent times: this is unashamed hagiography, a knowingly old-fashioned celebration of a heroic life.

Battling beneath the weight of a haystack haircut and the most terrifying gnashers this side of ‘Jaws: The Revenge’, Swank makes a decent fist of the title role, all brittle consonants and steely self-determination. In a surprising but highly appropriate upset, it’s Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor who take the thankless arm-candy roles, as book-tycoon hubby George Putnam and gadabout bit-on-the-side Gene Vidal, respectively.

The script, framed in a series of flashbacks as Amelia embarks on her doomed round-the-world flight, takes our heroine from plucky but inexperienced amateur pilot to icon of the Great Depression. It’s a fascinating story, told simply but effectively: no one’s working outside their comfort zone, but the film is never less than watchable and is often highly entertaining. Nair constructs the aerial sequences with real grace, and the entire enterprise has a lightness of touch that precludes any deep emotional involvement but also enables proceedings to tick along quite pleasurably. Inoffensive, arcane and ultimately rather sweet, ‘Amelia’ is one to take your grandmother to.

Author: Tom Huddleston 2009-11-10 12:58:10

Time Out London Issue 2047: November 12-18, 2009

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User reviews of this film

james said...

Posted on Nov 22 2009 02:44 I don't know why usman bothered going to see this when they were already set against the subject matter and director.
Personally, I think they managed to achieve the old school style they were going for . It's a simple straight forward film, not brilliant not terrible but definitely better than okay. Acting is decent to good throughout.Overall, I enjoyed myself and liked the film. I would give this three but am giving it four to make up for usman's overly harsh one star. You want one star? Go and see dragonhunter.

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Nov 15 2009 03:00 THE ADVENTURES OF AN OVERAMBITIOUS AMERICAN AVIATRIX ;l
Here observed by another rather ambiguously talented Indian woman who once created a masterpiece in the realist drama -Salaam Bombay which has since been ripped off in clumsy fantasy epics like Slum dogs and many others .
if Hilary Swank as Amelia was a visionary icon she was also rather tragic failure who was as much a dreamer as a fantasy weaver ,similar to Nair herself and the movie is a reminder of the periodic sumptuousness of the celebrity wealth and their eccentric adventures from thirties with every detail from jazz singers to mink coats brushed to perfection ,except for the script which is as insipid as miss swank's dentures which are ober focused more than the flashy biplanes or the shimmering oceans underneath .
swank has given a really effete performance but it is nothing compared to Richard Gere and Ewan Mcgregor who play her rather expressionless robotic husband and toy boy alternatively .
So the adulteress and aviatrix gossips with mrs.Roosevelt whisking her for a night flight over D.C .,and than crosses the atlantic to land in an irish sheep farm in a scarlett biplaNE,MATCHING HER COSTIME .
IN FACT she claims at the start that the press ask her two frequent queries -where is she going and what is she wearing -the simple reply will be i an going to disappear in eternity like all ELSE,and i wear what the french give me for promoting their fashion houses .
She also writes some metaphysical love poems and also tries desperately to invent some female quotes but it all comes to a wasted endeavour where her salubrious jaws project more on the screen than the vision to fly .
finall in a euphemism of mercy i wanted her to disappear so the movie and the rather designer melodrama without a shred of sense will terminate and it did .
NAIR may be a two movie wonder with salaam bombay and monsoon wedding but than someone needs to account for the miserable THACKERAY VANITY FAIR AND MISSISSIPPI MASSALA ,not to mention -KAMA SUTRA ,A HALF BAKED TOUR TO INDIAN RAJASTHAN .
Swank here is a total washout from her blonde boy cut COIFFURE to her torrid affairs with ewan looking like a lout in a tuxedo and Gere looks lost in depression with a white mane for a haircut .
A gargantuan cinematic disaster that makes the tragic disappearance of Amelia a relief so we can be spared more excruciating torture on screen .
the flight itinerary for the record detting one woma transglobal flight is is paris -karachi pakistan -calcutta india -bangkok -hawaii and than it goes clueless with an emotionless negativity in the dull fimnale that makes you feel delirious after the screen goes blank .
i wish that it had remained blank all along and this never had materialised with miss swank's cheesy smiles endless bickering .

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