"AMELIA" Review

When we see a movie in a theatre on a date, my husband and I have to be selective. We read the reviews and carefully select everything to make it worthwhile. We have two kids; there's just not time for a bad movie!

Though Amelia didn't have stellar reviews, we wanted to see it. After all, the real Amelia was from Kansas! We have to go cheer on our own historic home girl! ;-)

The Story

If you've never heard of the story, this may be news to you. The movie details Amelia Earhart, the first famous female pilot who broke records once held only by men. Her story has always complicated the aspect of making of movie of her life, as she disappeared over the South Pacific on her way around the world.

The Cast

Hilary Swank - Amelia Earhart
Richard Gere - George P. Putnam
Ewan McGregor - Gene Vidal
Christopher Eccleston - Fred Noonan
Joe Anderson - Bill Stutz
William Cuddy - Gore Vidal as a young child
Mia Wasikowska - Elinor Smith

There's obviously quite a cast of big names!

The Verdict

Personally, I felt this movie fell flat for me. The acting wasn't spectular and although interesting, the story line made it feel like it belonged on the History Channel, not $8 in the movie theatre. It was fun, but it dragged considerably. By the time it started to pick up again in the second half, I was done.

The camera work was also a bit shakey, especially in the scenes in Papa New Guinea. The camera went out of focus far too many times to make it worth while. My husband blames it on the projector in the theatre, but considering the rest of the movie was fine, I'm not completely convinced it wasn't just a way to get the rain to look more realistic.

To me the characters were a bit forced and underdeveloped. You want to like the characters, but there's very little growth and change. Sure you see Amelia and Putnum grow in their relationship, but that's about it. This was a woman who changed the world - you would think you would see a bit more.

In addition, Hillary Swank just never aged. Considering the period of the movie spanned a significant number of years, there was no change to Hillary's face or body to indicate that she had aged at all. 

I didn't walk in to the theare hating this movie. This is about a fellow Kansan - of course I wanted it to do well! I wanted to believe that the other reviews (both expert and consumer) were just being overly critical. Unfortunately - they were beingh honest. 

The one thing I will say is that they handled the ending well. No one really knows what happend. However, they lost it when they ended it with Swank's voice making cheesy and overly dramatized conclusions and inspirational thoughts.

While it wasn't a waste of my money, it wasn't really worth the two hours it took from me.

Overall

If you like history or Amelia Earhart, wait until it comes to your local dollar theatre or History Channel. I would never pay more than matinee price to see this movie.