Review: 'Amelia'
Plot: The short but eventful life of pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart.
Bottom line: Fine acting and gorgeous photography, though the story is sometimes less than compelling.
Cast: Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston
Length: 1:51
Sky has limits in aviator bio 'Amelia'
Swank Soars in 'Amelia'
Trailer: Amelia
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Movie: "Amelia"
Aviation pioneer, celebrity, early feminist - and swinger?
The preferred term today is polyamorist, though Amelia Earhart, played by a freckle-faced Hilary Swank in the biographical film "Amelia," used more poetic words when entering an open marriage in 1931. "I shall not hold you to any medieval code of faithfulness to me," she wrote in an unorthodox and highly unofficial pre-nup, "nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly."
Where did a girl from Atchison, Kan., get such notions? "Amelia" can't answer that, partly because director Mira Nair ("The Namesake") devotes so much time to Earhart's famed aviation exploits. The result is a grand-looking and somewhat familiar history lesson, but it would have been more interesting to hear about the aspects of Earhart that didn't make the papers.
Earhart's husband was George Putnam, a publishing scion with a nose for publicity, who, according to the film (based on two Earhart biographies), engineered the 1928 trans-Atlantic flight that would turn her into a product-plugging celebrity. Played with convincing sensitivity by Richard Gere, Putnam lives for money but freely gives his heart to this tomboyish lady pilot.
She, however, gives hers to Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor), a rising socialite and businessman (his young son, the future author Gore Vidal, is played by William Cuddy). The ensuing romantic triangle is highly civilized - all spend weekends together, kid included - but far from ideal.
Swank, a two-time Oscar winner for gender-bending roles in "Boys Don't Cry" and "Million Dollar Baby," may be gunning for a third. Her Earhart, however, is understated, a taciturn Midwesterner who somehow intoxicates the men around her (even her final co-voyager, played by Christopher Eccleston). It's a quiet, subtle role that sometimes gets lost in the cinematic clouds.
