Amelia (2009)
By: Mira Nair (director), Ronald Bass, Anna Hamilton Phelan (writers)
Starring: Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Joe Anderson, Cherry Jones
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.
My understanding about Amelia is that there are quite a lot of historical inaccuracies in its telling of the infamous career of pilot Amelia Earhart. Unfortunately for the film, how true it stays to Earhart’s actual life is a much lesser concern than the clunky and uninspiring direction that have rendered the experiences of one of history’s most notable women utterly forgettable. Had the movie been better, the differences between truth and fiction would be excusable, if only in the name of engaging filmmaking.
The worst part of Amelia is that it has the makings to be truly extraordinary. Beyond the aforementioned notable life, it is populated by a cast that should in itself ensure brilliance, and yet it is within this cast that Mira Nair’s sloppy direction is most apparent. Hilary Swank is one of the most talented actresses of her generation, but while she gives Earhart a very commendable go, she never quite hits the note she’s after within the constraints of the film’s choppy and perplexing pacing. Against all odds Ewan McGregor managed to turn in one of the few well-acted portrayals under George Lucas’ bumbling Star Wars prequel direction, yet is so completely uninteresting in his role as Gene Vidal that he honestly might as well not be on the screen at all. Christopher Eccleston fairs slightly better, but his decent portrayal is rendered mostly moot by his atrocious and unpredictable American accent. Richard Gere…well, he was Richard Gere, and playing the same man he always plays in the exact same way he always plays him, and it doesn’t really deserve more mention than that it’s one thing I can’t really blame on the film’s floundering sense of direction.
Amelia isn’t bad, not in the traditional sense. It didn’t make me cringe, and I got all the way through it without once wondering when it would be over. What it did do, however, was make me really pissed off. While I’m no expert on Earhart, she has nevertheless always intrigued and inspired me, and beyond that, Hilary Swank is one of my favorite contemporary actresses. This movie could have been amazing but was flat-out squandered, and nothing annoys me more than a good movie wasted on sub-par direction and writing. So, yes, I’m giving it 3 stars and calling it average because it actually is watchable in the more overarching sense, but I’m also putting it on record that Amelia made me really fucking angry and leaving it at that.
I feel like Ewan McGregor has not been good for a long time. I just don’t know what happened, he showed such promise!
I just took a look at his filmography, and apparently the only other film I’ve seen him in since Episode III was Miss Potter. I thought he was charming in that, but looking at this list, there’s only one other project of his from the last 5 years I’m remotely interested in, so maybe that’s telling. But you’re right; he really did seem like he was going to be Very Very Big in the memorable talent sense, especially after Big Fish. He used to be a favorite, but now I can take him or leave him. Kind of sad, that.
Seriously. I watched Moulin Rouge for the first time in months (years?) the other day and I was all a-squee over him. I didn’t see him in anything between The Island and The Men Who Stare At Goats and at this point I’m kind of over him and his dubious American accents. I want him to be good in something again!