The period detail is brilliantly brought to life, but the film is superficial, lacking the passion of its heroine.
Comment
11/11/09
Amelia (2009)
20
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:138
Fresh:28
Rotten:110
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.
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $13,986,210
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
Reviews for Amelia
Top CriticAmelia reminds us how little we really know about the lives of famous achievers who changed the world, and underlines the power of biography on screen. It's a creatively and technically accomplished film with thrills and emotional action in equal measure
11/05/09
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
Top CriticOscar-winning actress Hilary Swank gives Earhart a convincing Kansas twang but little else in a performance that is unaccountably stiff.
11/12/09
Top CriticSwanks’ clear shot at a third statuette is blocked by hulkingly dull writing and direction that could point the way towards a definitive cure for insomnia.
11/11/09
Top CriticRomance edges ahead of adventure or characterisations and as a result, despite a soaring lead performance by Hilary Swank, the film suffers from a fatal dose of melodrama
11/05/09
Top CriticHilary Swank captures her beautifully.
11/11/09
Top CriticAmelia is a perfectly sound biopic, well directed and acted, about an admirable woman.
10/22/09
Top CriticTwo-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank can’t give any lift to Amelia, a soggy, un-engaging biopic.
10/21/09
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
With any luck this biopic of Amelia Earhart will also vanish without a trace.
10/22/09
Told in final-flight flashback (naturally) with cumulus cloud scene wipes (of course!), Earhart’s life is reduced to a series of solemnized wide-screen tableaux populated by locale-specific extras acting as starstruck filler.
10/21/09
Top-flight portrayal of the aviator by Hilary Swank is an instant bio classic.
10/18/09
Click to read the article
10/30/09
Top CriticAmelia was a great adventurer and an inspirational woman. But you would hardly know it from this uninspiring romantic slush.
11/13/09
Top CriticWwhy does such an exciting life make such a dull movie?
10/26/09
What should have been a soaring, inspirational, complex epic has been grounded by bad storytell ADVERTISEMENT ing, chocolate-box visuals, rubbish star turns and another awful US accent from a Ewan McGregor.
11/13/09
When it takes to the skies Amelia really soars with thrilling recreations of Earhart’s solo flights but when it returns to earth all that remains is soap opera.
11/13/09
Gere and McGregor are fine actors, but Nair uses them like the expendable males (Zachary Scott, Franchot Tone, et al) who stood back and let Bette Davis and Joan Crawford do all the heavy lifting back in the day.
10/22/09
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
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