Amelia (2009)

Director Mira Nair (Indian born, Harvard educated, New York resident) is known for her colorful, emotional work, including one of my personal favorites, The Namesake (2006), based on the page-turner by Jhumpa Lahiri, as well as Monsoon Wedding (2001) and others. And we were flooded with beauty and color on the screen: photography by Stuart Dryburgh (Oscar nominated for The Piano (1993), should have been nominated for The Painted Veil (2006)), and magnificent wardrobe by Kasia Walicka-Maimone, who was nominated by her peers for the costumes of Capote (2005). Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank (I think I'll be arrested if I don't call her that) (won for Boys Don't Cry (1999) and Million Dollar Baby (2004); I can't say any of her other work has knocked me out, so to speak) is a great canvas for Walicka-Maimone's creations. Swank also clearly worked hard on the voice, with a bit of a Katherine Hepburn influence, and she shows her character's enthusiasm for everything she loved. But I am not alone in opining that this movie is, like Swank's frame, a little thin. The Rotten Tomatoes site has a list of reviews here (some spoilers inevitable if you delve) with a score of 16 out of 100 at this writing. It saddens me that the talented Nair couldn't bring it more to life. It is based on two biographies of aviatrix Amelia Earhart: East to the Dawn by Susan Butler and The Sound of Wings by Mary S. Lovell, with the screenplay by Ron Bass (arguable chick flicks such as The Joy Luck Club (1993), When a Man Loves a Woman (1994), Waiting to Exhale (1995), and My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), all of which I liked, followed his deserved Oscar for Rain Man (1988)) and Anna Hamilton Phelan (Mask (1985) and Girl, Interrupted (1999)). The music, by composer Gabriel Yared (Oscar winner for The English Patient (1996), nominated for The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Cold Mountain (2003)) seems tailored for the Academy, and didn't particularly move me. You will have to listen carefully to hear the name of the little boy Earhart befriends: future author Gore Vidal (spoiler alert for this link to an interview with him). More interesting, a lesbian friend of mine tells me that Earhart is regularly listed as one of many accomplished lesbians of history. Not in this movie, she's not, though, of course, Swank has already done that. Note: the scene in the preview where Earhart is standing on top of a flying plane is not in the movie.

If we hadn't had such high expectations, I might have been more generous in this posting. I still say, however, that it was not a waste of time, with the costumes, photography, and sets worth the price of admission.