Amelia

Watching this bland biopic of Amelia Earhart’s life you’d be forgiven for thinking it was all blue skies, at least until her round-the-world odyssey went awry and she disappeared over the Pacific in 1937. Most of the film focuses on her achievements: becoming the first to fly solo across the Atlantic, a hesitant hero and best-selling author. But there’s little to reveal what made her tick, apart from the obvious, cue some lovely cinematography from the cockpit. Yes we learn she was a free spirit who made her home in the sky rather than her husband’s bed. We see she found the nature of her fame superficial and difficult to deal with.

But Hilary Swank’s competent performance is let down by a script that doesn’t always ring true. “Flying lets me move in three dimensions,” she says, at which point you have to wonder what two-dimensional world the rest of us move in. Earhart’s inner life barely gets a look-in – her famous dalliances with the same sex warrant a one-liner and a glance at a woman with good legs.

The film’s best moments are when things go wrong. Director Mira Nair ratchets up the tension as Earhart struggles to find her way on the biggest flight of her life. It’s in those moments, high above the never-ending ocean we get a glimpse of the guts it took to be Amelia Earhart. The rest is as flat as a school history lesson.

By Rebecca Barry, Flicks.co.nz