Blu-Ray Review: Dull ‘Amelia’ Should Be Grounded

CHICAGO – It seems downright sad that “Amelia,” a movie that was so widely predicted to be a part of the 2009 awards season, would be released on Blu-ray and DVD on the same day as the Oscar announcements. On paper, “Amelia” seemed like Oscar bait through and through with important subject matter headlined by one of the few women to have more than one Oscar. On Blu-ray, it’s easy to see why this cinematic plane crashed and burned.

Blu-Ray Rating: 2.0/5.0

“Amelia” is one of those well-intentioned dramas that doesn’t necessarily do that much wrong that it’s worth getting fired up about but it’s so shockingly forgettable and sleep-inducing. Sure, it looks good, the performances are reasonably interesting, and it features an intriguing true story, but it’s so old-fashioned that it crosses into by-the-numbers, generic cinema that they don’t really make that often any more for a reason.

Amelia was released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 2nd, 2010.
Photo credit: Fox Home Video

Director Mira Nair has taken the true story of a female pioneer and turned it into an old-fashioned snooze. It’s the Muzak version of an intriguing life in that it’s pleasant enough but so remarkably forgettable that it dissipates from memory before it’s even over. “Amelia” is a case study in predictable, surface level writing, something that should probably be expected from scribes whose credits include “Stepmom,” “Entrapment,” and “Girl, Interrupted”.

Amelia was released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 2nd, 2010. Photo credit: Fox Home Video

Hilary Swank stars in the title role of Amelia Earhart as the film is structured as a flashback during the legendary pilot’s final, disastrous flight around the world, from which she was never seen again. It’s as if Earhart is remembering the key moments of her life as we flashback to the times that made Amelia a legend, complete with predictable narration from our heroine. One of the scripts significant mistakes is that the film seems more interested in the mystique of Amelia than with presenting us with the actual human being. They choose to essentially ignore the formative years of this pioneer, opening with her first trip across the Atlantic and focusing more on her famous, final years than how she got there.

Consequently, we never feel like we get to know Amelia, why she flies, or why she made the decisions she did throughout her life, despite the dozen of so speeches about the importance of being airborne, none of which resonate with any truth. The endless speech-ifying becomes caricature-ish and completely predictable and emotionally stagnant. Even the love triangle between Amelia, her husband George Putnam (Richard Gere), and Amelia’s lover Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor) is stale.

To be fair, “Amelia” is too pretty to ever be considered painfully bad. Swank does her best with a part she seemed destined to play for years and the film doesn’t really drag, but mostly because it never changes pace until the climax, which adds a bit of tension to a film that never really had any up to that point. It just never gets off the ground.

“Amelia” is presented in 1080p and accompanied by an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. Special features include a digital copy, deleted scenes, “Making Amelia,” “The Power of Amelia Earhart,” “The Plane Behind the Legend,” “Re-Constructing the Planes of Amelia,” and Movietown News 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 News: Amelia Earhart,” and “Race to Rescue Amelia Earhart!”

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com