Amelia

Biopics are often reverential to a fault. Floating the question, Kimberly Gadette asks: Can Swank and co-leads Gere and McGregor make this particular vessel fly?

What a great idea for a film. A biopic that would delve into the life and loves of one of the most intriguing women of the early 20th century, a strong woman who was a feminist long before the word was fashionable, who traveled her own path both on and above the ground. An American sweetheart whose disappearance fuels her celebrity even now, 72 years after her plane vanished into thin air. A film that would finally allow us to get a sense of the real person behind the name 'Amelia Earhart.'

Per producer Ted Wiatt: "She still ranks as one of the 10 most famous Americans of all time – yet not many know her real story."

And now, after nearly two hours of Amelia … we still know zip about her real story.

After a brief flash forward before Earhart's final state-side departure, the movie opens up on an empty tarmac under a clear sky. And then, accompanied by voluminous orchestration, a 1930s plane comes into view, flying straight at us, reverential and majestic. It's a warning of sorts. Because in the ensuing 111 minutes, we will continuously be at the mercy of the reverential and majestic – accompanied by ever-billowing crescendos of said voluminous orchestrations. Someone want to turn the treacle down?

Cut to Manhattan, 1928. We are introduced to a 30-year-old Earhart (Hilary Swank) meeting with publisher George Putnam (Richard Gere) regarding a public relations flying gig. (Although she's already a full-fledged aviatrix, the film doesn't disclose how she managed to conquer such a male-oriented field.) With Putnam's media-savvy expertise, he creates a "Lady Lindy" that he successfully sells to the public. The more she flies, the more she gets to fly, accruing sponsorships that subsidize her airborne adventures. Earhart and Putnam form quite the partnership: she's the star, he's the publicist. He's also smitten, ultimately talking her into matrimony – even though she balks at the marital ball and chain. The film deals lightly with her dalliance with aeronautics expert Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor). But only lightly.

Otherwise, the movie's cobbled together by a plethora of newsreels, flight logs, poetic musings delivered in voiceover by Swank, and a great amount of footage of planes taking off, landing or simply flying from one point A to a further point B.

We know nothing of Putnam's or Vidal's histories, and we only briefly learn about Earhart's (ie, her admonition to a tipsy co-pilot that her daddy was a drunk, so the pilot had better straighten up and fly right.) Why the filmmakers refused to explore the interior lives of the lead characters in this biopic is as mysterious as Earhart's eventual disappearance.

Swank overcomes the poor material, exuding a brisk, often girlish optimism. Working from old recordings, she recreates Earhart's upper-class, finishing school accent of the day, reminiscent of the vocal quality of a young Katherine Hepburn. With all the flying hither and yon, there's not much of a chance to emote; yet she finds a telling moment with McGregor. With the two of them seated in a nightclub, Earhart points out a beautiful woman. While he's teasing her, we get a glimpse of an insecure, ugly duckling underneath the tomboy – a woman who doubts her ability to attract the opposite sex. And suddenly, we understand why the winning over of a handsome lover would matter so much.

If only the filmmakers had embraced emotional flight over flight plans, they might have been able to liberate this movie from its terminally grounded condition.

Gere continues to be the consummate professional, able to convey great depth even when the written word falls short. But McGregor is relegated to strutting about in his tuxedo, a stiff dullard in search of a life. He is sadly wasted.

As for Gabriel Yared's score, occasionally employing the mute button would have been nice. A score is no substitute for a story; the louder it gets, the more we notice that the film's coming up empty.

The life of Amelia Earhart has been translated to the screen in four previous instances: a fictional propaganda film (1943's Flight for Freedom), two television movies (1976 and 1994) and one documentary (2000). And yet, even with this fifth leaden attempt, it seems that Earhart's story is still as enigmatic as the woman herself.

Perhaps that's just what she wanted.

Rating on a scale of 5 wander lusts: 2

Release date: US: 23 October 2009; UK: 13 November 2009
Directed by: Mira Nair
Screenplay by: Ron Bass and Anna Hamilton Phelan
Based on books by Susan Butler and Mary S. Lovell
Cast: Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, Joe Anderson, Cherry Jones, Mia Wasikowska
Rating: US = PG; UK = PG
Running time: 111 minutes