Amelia
Hillary Swank puts on the face of Amelia Earhart in the film Amelia and sends us through the life and achievements of the great aviatrix. From her first flight across the Atlantic to her mysterious disappearance, we are shown Amelias love of flying and her diverse outtake on love and life.
Growing up I was always so intrigued by the story of Amelia Earhart. I found her to be an extraordinary woman, and still do. Unfortunately, I dont feel as positively about the film. Not all great stories have the depth and intrigue to make it on film. Yes, very intriguing woman, but not an intriguing film.
The entire screenplay and plot was lacking any interest. I know it couldnt have been that easy for her to rise to fame and fight for womens rights to fly. I absolutely cannot believe her love life was that easy going and drama less. There were several opportunities for the film to have taken of some life, but it never did. There were no climatic points or build to anything. Everything just fell into place throughout the entire movie with no real how or why. The whole love story was very disappointing, or shall I say lack there of. Well, actually the whole thing was pretty disappointing.
There just wasn’t any chemistry between the characters. I don’t think the casting was well done for this project, aside from Hillary Swank. Don’t get me wrong. Hillary Swank, Richard Gere, and Ewan McGregor are all wonderful actors, but just because you put several good actors together does not mean you’re going to get great acting. The characters were too bland. The script was just not interesting enough to put any real emotion into it. There was no love between characters and audience. I never felt a draw to any of them throughout the entire film, and trust me, it was long enough to have formed some kind of a bond. However, I must say that Hillary Swank was the perfect person to play the role of Amelia. She had the perfect look, no matter how annoying that cheesy grin may have been.
I know this is a sad thing to say but I was kind of excited when she finally disappeared. I couldn’t wait for the end to come. It was just way too long of a movie to sit through already knowing the outcome. There wasn’t that great Titanic, scoot your toosh over and let Jack on that door, moment to annoy and make you cry. We already knew the ending was monstrously sad, at least try to make the rest of the film interesting. The love story, if it can be called that, drug things out to a redundant point.
Even though the film did look and sound great, it just never caught my interest. I never found myself engrossed in the film, and that is always a disappointment.
Special Features
Disc 1- Blu-ray
-Deleted Scenes
-Making Amelia, The Power of Amelia Earhart, The Plane Behind the Legend, Re-Constructed the Plane of Amelia
-Movietime Movie Reels: Mrs. Putnam Flies The Atlantic Again- This Time Alone
Amelia Earhart Flies Over the U.S. in 17 Hours
Miss Earhart Flies from Hawaii to U.S. to Win Solo Crown
Aviation (Introducing the Electra)
Aviation (Amelia Testing Her Plane)
Names in the New: Amelia Earhart
Race to Rescue Amelia Earhart!
Disc 2- Digital Copy
The only addition to the blu-ray extras were the featurettes on the Electra and re-constructing the plane. It was interesting that they actually tracked down one of the last 11 Electras left and used the real deal. I still think they should have given more of a shoutout to Amelia. I know they talked a good bit about her and devoted a movie to her, but I was looking for a special spark in the extras that just wasn’t there.
