Instead of soaring alongside Amelia, we're left grounded by a script that spends too much time on her love life and not enough time on what made her an extraordinary woman.
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10/22/09
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Amelia (2009)
21
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:140
Fresh:29
Rotten:111
Average Rating:4.4/10
Consensus: Amelia takes the compelling raw materials of its subject’s life and does little with them, conventionally ticking off Earhart's accomplishments without exploring the soul of the woman.
Rated: PG [See Full Rating]
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Oct 23, 2009 Wide
Box Office: $14,172,106
Synopsis: Visionary. Lover. Dreamer. Fighter. Legend. Icon. AMELIA. An extraordinary life of adventure, celebrity and continuing mystery comes to light in AMELIA, a vast, thrilling account of legendary... [More]
Starring: Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston
Director: Mira Nair
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Reviews for Amelia
Swank and Nair play it safe to the point of benumbing this woman's life, leaving Earhart as remote and muted as she is in the black-and-white photos and news footage of the aviator included at the film's end.
10/20/09
Top CriticWwhy does such an exciting life make such a dull movie?
10/26/09
Top CriticTowards the end, as the story returns to that round-the-world flight, the suspense kicks in, and Swank’s performance comes into its own.
11/11/09
Hilary Swank captures her beautifully.
11/11/09
... it is a film that fails to soar even a little bit despite being about one of the greatest flyers in the history of the planet.
11/11/09
Click to read the article
10/30/09
[Swank is] so constrained by mannerisms that she never gets beyond the character’s surface -- although to be fair, trying to import feeling into the movie’s stilted dialogue is like trying to fly a plane blindfolded.
10/22/09
Critics may balk but Amelia is old fashioned in the best sense and soars as a big, beautiful and sweeping motion picture biography about a true American legend.
10/23/09
Amelia is a film that could have been great, but instead is an average film about an extraordinary person.
11/08/09
It just never takes off.
10/22/09
Stiff biopic of the legendary flier skims the surface of her achievements but never quite takes off.
10/22/09
Amelia modestly succeeds at inspiring its audience and provides a remarkably well-rounded role model for modern women, thanks to a terrific performance by Hilary Swank.
10/23/09
Swank has fun in the role - I haven't seen her smile this much in years - but she isn't given much complicated to do besides frustrate her friends when she digs in her heels.
10/19/09
What the film offers is melodrama, more interested in the aviatrix's bedroom activities than her spirit. Amelia hunts for complexity, but it only achieves a tedious middle ground.
10/22/09
Near the end though, when they talk about coming home, that almost feels like she's saying, 'Two days to retirement.'
10/23/09
With any luck this biopic of Amelia Earhart will also vanish without a trace.
10/22/09
Amelia is a perfectly sound biopic, well directed and acted, about an admirable woman.
10/22/09
Top CriticA director can do only so much with a script...that feels like it's on the runway, waiting, even when it's up in the air.
10/22/09
Top CriticA fine tribute to an American pioneer, but I feel sure that Earhart's story merits, and would reward, a more searching and thoughtful exploration.
10/31/09
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October 08, 2009:
New: Brand New Trailer and Poster Here.
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June 28, 2009:
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